Which iPhone Should You Buy? These Are the 5 Best Available Now.

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We're likely a month away from a new iPhone release. Apple's phone launches always come in September, there's nothing indicating this one will be any different. What upgrades can we expect on the new iPhone 15 series? There's a million rumors buzzing around—USB-C charging, RAM increase, camera upgrades (duh), and a new chipset (duh). All of which are prepping us for a... lukewarm launch.

Not saying the iPhone 15s won't improve on the 14s, they will. But I went to Seoul, South Korea for Samsung's big Galaxy Unpakced launch. It wasn't a mind blowing release. If we can believe rumors, the Google Pixel release will be similar. It seems 2023 won't be the year of smartphones. The weirder shit—like Apple's Vision Pro or Dyson's headphones—is set to be the lasting impact of 2023. Which we're cool with.

So we figured this would be a great time to look at the iPhones you can buy right this second. Which iPhones are best? Which iPhone should I buy? We've already done it with Macs, iPad accessories, iPhone wallets, Watch bands, MagSafe wallets, and AirPods. Why not round out our Apple research with a phone deep dive? And deep dive we did, spending countless hours with Apple iPhones to come up with this list of the best iPhones to buy, not matter what it is you need them to do.

iPhone 14

For just about anyone, the standard iPhone—not the iPhone Plus, unless you really want the 6.7-inch display—is great. The iPhone 14 wasn't revolutionary, but these things rarely are.

What you get is everything you'd expect from Apple. It looks good, with a handful of brighter colors not featured on the 14 Pro, like this red. The 12MP camera with ultra wide doesn't really hold a candle to the 48MP on the 14 Pro, but it's still a great phone camera, more than capable of taking IG pics. The A15 Bionic chip will perform just as well as the A16 Bionic chip in everything except gaming. (But if you want a gaming phone, you should skip Apple altogether.)

The main thing here is that most people will be just as happy with a base iPhone, instead of a Pro or Pro Max. That said, it's well-known that camera tech is the main driver behind smartphone sales, and the Pro/Pro Max is lightyears ahead there.

iPhone 14 Pro

That camera upgrade is what's gonna sell the Pro. Apple's A16 Bionic chip is currently reserved for the Pro line. To be quite honest though, there's not much between it and the A15 Bionic that powers the other phones. With the A16 chip, the Pro runs a little bit faster, and the battery lasts a little bit longer. Everything else is minutiae for the nerds.

But the camera is, without a doubt, miles ahead of the camera on the standard iPhone. It shoots in 48MP, and it features a telephoto lens that drastically improves your ability to zoom. And if you enable the ProRAW setting, you'll actually be shooting in a beautifully clear 48MP. For some buyers, especially you content creators, that's enough to justify the extra $200.

iPhone 14 Pro Max

And for the flagship, the standard bearing model, go for the Pro Max. Tangibly though, this is an iPhone 14 Pro with a bigger screen. Though with that larger size you get a larger battery, so the Pro Max has the best battery life out of the lineup.

Unless you really care about battery life or screen size, I'd say stick to the Pro.

iPhone SE

In 2022, among the 14 release, Apple gave the SE a refresh. What the brand made was one of the best budget phones on the market. Honestly, it's the only one I genuinely cared about at release time. You can keep all your talk about OLED screens and new cameras or a new chipset. This phone does everything you need, sells for around $500, and it comes in that red color I love so much.

Tangibly, the SE is an updated version of those much beloved older iPhone models. Like the 8 or the 9, it has a touch ID. The camera is inferior to the new models, but it still shoots in 12MP. The A15 Bionic chip is practically the same one that's in the iPhone 14, so performance is the same.

The main drawback—besides the old look that a lot of tech people don't like—is the battery life. That new chipset in an old package drains the living hell out of this thing. If you're casual about using your phone, it's fine. If you're somewhere you'll have reliable charging access, it's fine. But if you're in a big city where you're not getting in a car to move around, it's an annoyance.

iPhone 13 Mini

When Apple dumped the Mini after a brief two-year run, no one really cared. Apple thought there was a market for a smaller iPhone, and there wasn't. No one was angered by the lack of iPhone 14 Mini.

Except I was.

I understand all the tech. I know why phones are so big. I even kinda get the appeal. But honestly, y'all can keep that. I want my personal phone to do the bare minimum: Take calls, send messages, take decent pictures. I'm not gaming on it. I'm not editing on it. The iPhone Mini was a great little device for that. The price is comparable to the SE, but you get the newer specs—like an ultra-wide camera, better battery life, and a ceramic shield glass screen.

Apple obviously thinks it can hit the Mini market with the SE, but I'm not convinced. I think time will be favor the Mini, and it's brief run will be looked back on fondly by the tech world. Maybe down the line we even get a re-release (unlikely). Until then I'll rock my busted iPhone 12 Mini (it almost costs as much to fix this one as it does to buy a 13 Mini).

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