In the past, I normally upgraded my iPhone every two years. Or at least every 2 iterations of the iPhone. I have iPhone 4S, replaced with iPhone 6, which was then replaced with iPhone X, and finally iPhone 12 Pro.

I didn’t upgrade my iPhone 12 Pro to iPhone 13, 14, or 15 – mainly because I didn’t feel there’s enough difference which push me to upgrade. The technology and design of smartphones (not only iPhone) have been stagnant for the past 5 years.

Actually I was ready to sitting on this iteration of iPhone 16 as well. As my old iPhone 12 Pro still do the job. Yeah, the camera may be lacking, and I had few issues with storage and battery life, which is common for an old phone. But so far, the power bank came to rescue every time. So yeah, I’d probably wait until the iPhone 17 come out, and see if the rumor that iPhone 17 is “significantly different” to iPhone 16 is true.

But alas, accident happened. I dropped my phone, and it cracked the screen protector. The change of screen protector would have been sufficient in this case, if I didn’t notice something wrong happened. My back camera failed to operate. It just showed a black screen.

That’s the moment when I consider whether I should upgrade my phone. The thought of repairing the camera was lingering on my head too, though. And I was still thinking I could live couple of days while pondering on this decision.

It was not.

Yesterday I realized how much important the camera was for our everyday’s life. I couldn’t scan documents for my work. I couldn’t snap pics for friends’ messages. And worse of all, I couldn’t make payment through QRIS – an increasingly de facto solution for payment in Jakarta these days.

Then I know, I was forced to upgrade.

So I went to buy the new iPhone 16 Pro against my initial will.

It’s sleek, a bit faster, last longer, and has much better camera. But again honestly, aside those improvements, I don’t see any significant value I got from the new iPhone. But it is what it is.

So I wish this phone will last long enough with me. Probably until iPhone 20 is out?