Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you

2024 iPhone Buyers Guide

By Leigh :) Stark, an award winning reviewer and technology journalist with over 15 years of expertise in phone news, reviews, and analysis. He even owns an original iPhone from the early days.

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With no less than four current iPhones and a few from prior years also in the line-up, picking an iPhone can be difficult. Fortunately, we can help.

When you’re in the market for any new gadget, working out what you want can be a daunting task. There are prices, feature sets, sizes, and so on, and so picking anything is often a case of research and working out just what is right for you.

It’s a question only you can answer, while the research side is often up to publishers like Pickr to help out. After all, reviewers have been working for years to explain what makes the right product the right product for you.

Picking a phone is one of these dilemmas. It’s never all that easy unless you know exactly what you want, and there is often a lot to choose from.

Pickr’s editor has long suggested to head to a store and find three phones you like the look and feel of, and then to research them and read reviews. Feeling whether they match your hand and who you are is an important part of working out if a phone is right for you, and is very much like seeing a TV for yourself when you audition it before buying. However, the research is critically important, as well. After all, how do you know if it’s good if you don’t see a review?

Buying an iPhone is no different, thanks in part to just how many iPhone models there are these days. With four released at a minimum every year, plus older models still in the range, both found new and from refurbished places, how do you pick an iPhone?

Buying the best iPhone right now

One of the obvious approaches is to pick the best iPhone you can, of which there are always two best iPhone models every year.

Simply look for the model that has the latest number and the words “Pro” or “Pro Max” to find the best iPhone. What makes the Pro/Pro Max models “the best” comes from a combination of factors, including:

  • The materials used in the design
  • Faster screen technology, and
  • Better cameras

From September 2023 to September 2024, those models are the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. While Apple typically keeps the feature set very similar between models, in terms of technology, the best iPhone right now is technically the iPhone 15 Pro Max, due to its difference in camera technology from its Pro sibling, something we confirmed by awarding the 15 Pro Max a Best Pick award at the end of 2023.

Apple iPhone 15 Pro

Read our review

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Read our review

Buying on size: which iPhone is right for me?

Alternatively, you may want to look at an iPhone based on size, which can give you a clue on which model to buy that fits your hand best.

Size is an important factor, because some people prefer a big phone while others prefer a smaller phone. If you don’t like carrying a lot of a phone with you, a smaller model can make a lot of sense. Meanwhile, if you prefer a phone with more battery life, bigger models can pack a larger battery in, which typically means greater battery life.

Apple’s current range includes 6.1 inch regular sized iPhones and larger 6.7 inch iPhone models, as well. These days, the use of Apple’s screen technology taking up most of the front meant 6.1 inches is considered a “normal” size of phones, even if it sounds larger, while 6.7 inches is the larger style of phone.

Apple no longer makes its smaller 5.5 inch iPhone Mini models, but a small iPhone can be found in the 4.7 inch iPhone SE, which is about the same size as the iPhone Mini, but instead uses a smaller screen flanked by borders not unlike the older iPhone 8.

Knowing what size suits your hand and pockets best can tell you which phone models you want to end up with.

The iPhone SE (middle) compared to the sizes of the iPhone 13 (left) and the iPhone 13 Mini (right).

Buying on price: which model has the best cost?

When you know which iPhone is right for your hands, consider the cost. Phones aren’t cheap, and an iPhone is typically the most premium of the bunch.

New iPhones start from $1499 in Australia, while the Pro models start from $1849, providing a solid difference in what you need to choose between. Apple makes both 6.1 inch regular-sized and 6.7 inch large-sized models in both the less expensive standard iPhone and more expensive Pro/Pro Max models, respectively, so your choice of size can be matched to your desire to save money or get the best technology.

Ultimately, reading reviews will give you the best understanding of what makes those differences up, but as we learned in 2023, the range of the iPhone is so solid, you’ll end up with a great phone regardless.

For iPhone buyers, the choice often comes down to what’s more important in the long term: saving money or having a better camera setup. That is largely the conundrum when picking an iPhone.

If the answer is saving money, go for the standard models. The feature set will often keep you happy for a few years, and you won’t need to spend as much. Meanwhile, if you want the best technology and don’t mind spending a little extra, the Pro and Pro Max models are the best you can go each year. They may change every year, but your feature set will likely keep you happier, and you may even find ways to gradually use everything Apple provides. Maybe.

Long term thinking: how much storage do I need?

Even after you’ve settled down and picked which size and price you want to spend, one question remains with iPhones: storage size.

Storage is one of the few choices Apple provides when you buy an iPhone, and it’s an important one, largely because everything we do depends on storage. When you take a photo, it stores that data on storage. When you download an app or game, it eats into the storage, as well.

The more things we do with an iPhone, the more our storage will be consumed, and while you can get it back if you delete files (hopefully after backing them up), you can’t upgrade storage on an iPhone at all. Storage is locked into a size when you buy an iPhone, and the most you can do to fix that is back things up and delete them. Apple’s operating system for an iPhone, iOS, also eats up storage on the iPhone.

The logic is therefore simple: buy the iPhone with the storage amount you think will keep you comfortable for the next however long you plan to use and keep your iPhone for.

While that can be difficult to work out, a simple logic is to start from the second storage tier for any iPhone. If you’re not sure how many apps you plan to download or photos and videos you plan to take, start from the second storage option and move up, as that will give you just that little bit extra flexibility.

On the current iPhone range, that’s essentially starting from 256GB, which seems an appropriate amount of storage for any phone in 2024 to have.

The iPhone 15 range for 2024

Speaking of the current iPhone range, let’s talk about what they are. From September 2023 when they were launched to September 2024 when they will likely be replaced, the current iPhone models to pick between are the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

  • If you want a 6.1 inch normal-sized model, you’re essentially picking between the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro.
  • If you want a larger 6.7 inch large-sized model, you’re essentially picking between the iPhone 15 Plus and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple iPhone 15

Read our review

Apple iPhone 15 Plus

Read our review

Apple iPhone 15 Pro

Read our review

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Read our review

Older iPhones are still great, too

Of course, you don’t have to buy a new iPhone.

Apple keeps slightly older models in its system for the next few years, providing a way to buy an iPhone that’s still great quality for less money, handy for people who want to save.

Until September 2024, that range includes:

Apple iPhone 12 reviewed

Apple iPhone 12

Read our review

Apple iPhone 13

Read our review

Apple iPhone 14

Read our review

Apple iPhone 14 Plus

Read our review

Note: while the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are the next logical phones to save money on, the standard iPhone 14 is very similar to an iPhone 13, with the only major difference being an autofocus selfie camera. If you’re considering the iPhone 14, we’d suggest considering the iPhone 13 closely, as the technology is largely the same.

The same does not technically apply to the iPhone 14 Plus due to the fact that the “plus” sized standard iPhone did not exist in years prior.

Refurbished phones can save serious money

There are others ways to save money on an iPhone in Australia, too.

While buying an older generation of iPhone is definitely one way to save on costs, a refurbished phone will also help you cut back due to its pre-owned status.

Refurbished phones are essentially used phones that have been checked by a professional and restored to their factory appearance as best possible. They’ll typically come with information noting the level of quality you’re buying, and may have components replaced, such as the battery and screen, which can give you more confidence than simply buying a used phone from someone else.

When it comes to buying an iPhone, buying a refurbished iPhone also comes with the added bonus of being able to find some of Apple’s older models that are quickly replaced when new models come out. While Apple shifts standard iPhone models along in its line, former Pro and Pro Max models invariably are removed from the line-up, likely to encourage people who want the best iPhone to consider the latest technology found in that year’s current iPhone Pro and Pro Max model.

Refurbished models can overcome this issue because they can be sold back to refurb dealers and be found once again.

If you’ve read the review of a Pro or Pro Max model iPhone that no longer can be commonly found, you may find a refurbished dealer can provide what you need.