We’ve all got friends (like the two above in the photo) that seem to always have the latest iPhone and might inevitably pressure you into wanting to upgrade as well, meaning sometimes you get into a weird scenario where you’re effectively upgrading your phone just for the sake of it, and a £1000 new iPhone each year or every few years is generally an awful financial decision. So we thought we would create 10 ways to help you from upgrading and to help make your existing iPhone quicker, especially as in the past Apple has been found to slow down devices 1.
- Delete a bunch of files from the phone / unused apps etc
A good way of doing this is by going to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage and select Manage Storage - Install a new battery, whilst this can be done via a DIY approach going to Apple (£49-£69) or a trusted 3rd party is likely the best solution for most. To check the health of the battery go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health.
- Give it a proper clean [this stuff is great], ensuring to remove dirt, grime and dust from the phone including from the charge port as well (be careful though, a wooden toothpick is normally ideal)
- Buy a new case [these are great and come with a lifetime warranty] and install a new screen protector [these are great screen protectors]
- Simply ask yourself, what problems will this new phone solve that I cannot do with this existing phone. If you cannot think of one then you know it’s not worth it.
- Speculation: Swap your old iPhone country to ‘France’ (Rumoured 4% improvement in performance albeit at the expense of battery life) due to this
- Turn on HEIF and HEVC file formats instead of JPG etc by visiting Settings > Camera > Formats and choose High Efficiency – This will mean each photo or video requires less data to be stored
- Reduce transparency and motion effects, to do this go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion and turn it on. Then jump down to Increase Contrast > Reduce Transparency and turn it on. These slightly speed up the feel of your phone and will use ever so slightly less processor power.
- Review the apps that have access to your GPS location, as this is a battery drainer! Settings > Privacy > Location Services
- Get into the habit of turning the phone off more, this is a fall-proof way of clearing the phones RAM etc making it feel snappier