With Apple supporting iPhones with IOS upgrades for years and security updates even longer, you don’t throw away an old iPhone, you either hand it down to someone else or you sell it.
Even an iPhone 6s from 2015 with a new battery is faster than most low end Android phones and it is still fully supported.
That's actually why I didn't upgrade from the 12 to the 13, because I wouldn't be doing the trade-ins. They were tempting offers but I hate being locked in to the same device for 24 - 30 months, which is a condition of most of the trade in offers. I would rather pay for the device outright and figure out what to do with my prior device, and so this newest iphone wasn't compelling enough for that.
(for context, my prior upgrades were in a more lenient trade-up program, which by coincidence resulted in me keeping up to date. not trying to pretend like avoiding a one year upgrade is some major sacrifice, its just what happened)
Yes thats what I meant by figure out what to do with my prior device, but thats alongside making sure I have backups of everything.
I've had some apps that stored files within them, and the app was no longer available for a higher version of iOS that a new phone shipped with. Would have been royally screwed if I had sold/traded in my prior phone because I wouldn't have immediately noticed except when I needed it.
Even an iPhone 6s from 2015 with a new battery is faster than most low end Android phones and it is still fully supported.