Compare iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel and OnePlus phones with source-based buying advice, upgrade guidance, repair considerations and new, used or refurbished shopping checks.
Every pro and con here is tied to something checkable — a manufacturer specification, a published Apple fee, or a named third-party result. The camera system and battery lead the pros; price, weight and the $899 uninsured damage fee lead the cons.
Check the percentage first: below 80% Battery Health, Apple’s $129 battery replacement — $0 with AppleCare+ — restores a $1,299 phone for 9.9% of its replacement cost. This desk guide works through the thresholds, the maths, and the point where an upgrade finally wins.
At Apple’s $1,299 list price, “worth it” is a calculation. This desk review makes it from the published record only — specifications, Apple’s repair fees and attributed lab results — and explains why 17 Pro Max owners can skip this cycle.
iFixit’s provisional 7/10, a battery tray worth praising and a display frame that cracked in three of four teardowns: the repairability evidence, with prices routed to the published cost guides.
Screen $379 (29.2% of new) versus a $1,299 replacement — and $29 with AppleCare+. The repair-or-replace decision for this model, done with Apple’s published figures.
Apple claims up to 50% in around 15 minutes wired and up to 50% in 30 minutes on MagSafe. This desk review keeps the two claims separate and states the adapter each one depends on.
Apple publishes a stereo speaker system and four studio-quality microphones — and no loudness figure at all. A desk review of what the specs do and do not prove.
A desk performance review with no invented benchmarks: Apple’s A20 Pro specification and test figures, iFixit’s account of a redesigned cooling path, and Tom’s Guide’s attributed 18 h 27 min battery result — plus where normal warmth ends and a diagnosable fault begins.
A gaming review with no invented frame rates: the A20 Pro and 120Hz ProMotion specification, iFixit’s evidence of a redesigned cooling system, an honest account of battery drain that refuses to dress video and web tests up as gaming numbers, and Apple’s two separate fast-charge claims.