I have some question

[skygreen2031]

I'm planning to get a new smartphone as a replacement for my galaxy s3 and I'm considering switching to iOS as I've been using Android for five years. The new iphone 8 seems to be a little upgrade over the last gen iPhone 7 so im deciding which of the two should i get. As some of you have been long time iPhone users, I have some questions to ask:

1. which capacity should i get? I don't usually play games nor play movies on my phone. Only music, photos and video streaming

2. How does file transfer from pc to iphone work? Is iTunes still required especially for music?

3. (SPECIAL MENTION) Your thoughts on iPhone SE?? It's the cheapest among the iPhone lineup and yet its powerful enough ( on par with 6s). The only disadvantage i see here is the front camera which is only 2 mpix and the small screen. Im also considering this one as my first ios device

Im planning to get a new phone next month.

 

[Tartarus]

If possible, hold off on buying an iPhone until mid-September as the new generation will be revealed then and the price of the previous generations will drop significantly.

I personally have the 256GB iPhone 7 Plus because I wanted to save all my music locally and be able to shoot photos and videos without worrying about storage.
Shortly after getting this phone my carrier introduced unlimited internet, effectively making my need for higher storage capacity obsolete because I suddenly didn’t need to make my 100+ GB of music available offline on my device.

The following screenshot will give you insight on how much storage I actually need for my use case:

My guess is that you will be best suited with a storage capacity of 128GB.

As for the iPhone 8 versus iPhone 7: the iPhone 8 is a bit faster than the 7, comes with wireless charging and a slightly better camera. It’s up to you if the difference in price is worth it. For me it wasn’t, so I didn’t upgrade my iPhone 7 Plus to either an iPhone 8 nor an iPhone X.

The iPhone SE is still powerful enough but I upgraded from an iPhone 5S to an iPhone 7 Plus just because of the bigger screen and coincidentally the larger battery capacity, which proved to be the wisest smartphone related decision I ever made.

I don’t transfer files much from and to my iPhone but when I do, I never had to use iTunes. I simply save files to Dropbox or in some cases to iCloud which I then can access on my iPhone and computer.

I used to use iTunes to transfer music from my computer to my iPhone but when Music was introduced I had no need for iTunes at all anymore. The few times I do use iTunes is to make local backups of my iPhone to my computer but even that is not necessary because of iCloud’s ability to make backups of the iPhone.

If Music isn’t for you, there is a plethora of other music services you can use to listen to and manage your music.

I hope this helps.

 

[Sherry_B]

I'm planning to get a new smartphone as a replacement for my galaxy s3 and I'm considering switching to iOS as I've been using Android for five years. The new iphone 8 seems to be a little upgrade over the last gen iPhone 7 so im deciding which of the two should i get. As some of you have been long time iPhone users, I have some questions to ask:

I came from the Galaxy S4 to the iPhone 6s, and now the iPhone 8 Plus. Huge, huge, huge improvement! As far as the differences between the 7 and the 8, there's quite a bit. Visit the Apple website and compare the two models and their tech specs side by side. I'm recommending the 8 or the 8 Plus over the SE and the 7.

Apple generally supports their phones for 5 or so years before they stop updating the OS for them. Having said that, the SE came out in 2016 as did the iPhone 7. You've got a good 3 or so years left on those before Apple stops sending updates. This is the main reason why I am recommending the 8 since it's not yet a year old.

1. which capacity should i get? I don't usually play games nor play movies on my phone. Only music, photos and video streaming

That's going to depend on your personal needs. We have a massive collection of physical music cd's that have been ripped into FLAC format sitting out on our NAS. When I want music for my phone I convert the files into MP3 and use iTunes to upload them to my phone. If you'll only be streaming then you may not need the highest capacity that Apple offers. Personally I feel that you should never limit yourself because sometimes circumstances can change. I recommend getting the largest capacity that you can comfortably afford.

I had a subscription to Apple Music, but canceled it last week when I discovered how much better Spotify is. Just tossing that out there.

2. How does file transfer from pc to iphone work? Is iTunes still required especially for music?

I've been a Dropbox user since it came out of beta, so I highly recommend it. As for music, if you have your own MP3's on a computer or laptop then iTunes is your safest bet for transferring your music onto your phone. But for files and photos you can use Dropbox. I never keep photos on my phone... they go to Dropbox and then I back them up by burning them to a disc. Then I safely delete them from my phone.

A tip about iCloud; it's a syncing service and not a backup service. If you delete a photo from iCloud it also gets deleted from your device. If you delete a photo from your device it also gets deleted from iCloud. This is why a lot of folks will recommend Dropbox.

3. (SPECIAL MENTION) Your thoughts on iPhone SE?? It's the cheapest among the iPhone lineup and yet its powerful enough ( on par with 6s). The only disadvantage i see here is the front camera which is only 2 mpix and the small screen. Im also considering this one as my first ios device

Im planning to get a new phone next month.

My husband has the SE. While he loves it immensely he knows it'll be time to upgrade soon. Don't get me wrong, it's a badarse little phone and it feels amazing in your hand, but you can definitely tell the difference in snappiness between it and my 8 Plus.

Hopefully everyone here who leaves a comment will offer up enough information for you to make your own informed decision about which device you'll choose and how much space you'll need. Good luck!

 

[Spencerdl]

Welcome to iMore. The last two post pretty much covered everything. Enjoy the site.

 

[Honey Beagle]

I came from the Galaxy S4 to the iPhone 6s, and now the iPhone 8 Plus. Huge, huge, huge improvement! As far as the differences between the 7 and the 8, there's quite a bit. Visit the Apple website and compare the two models and their tech specs side by side. I'm recommending the 8 or the 8 Plus over the SE and the 7.

Apple generally supports their phones for 5 or so years before they stop updating the OS for them. Having said that, the SE came out in 2016 as did the iPhone 7. You've got a good 3 or so years left on those before Apple stops sending updates. This is the main reason why I am recommending the 8 since it's not yet a year old.



That's going to depend on your personal needs. We have a massive collection of physical music cd's that have been ripped into FLAC format sitting out on our NAS. When I want music for my phone I convert the files into MP3 and use iTunes to upload them to my phone. If you'll only be streaming then you may not need the highest capacity that Apple offers. Personally I feel that you should never limit yourself because sometimes circumstances can change. I recommend getting the largest capacity that you can comfortably afford.

I had a subscription to Apple Music, but canceled it last week when I discovered how much better Spotify is. Just tossing that out there.



I've been a Dropbox user since it came out of beta, so I highly recommend it. As for music, if you have your own MP3's on a computer or laptop then iTunes is your safest bet for transferring your music onto your phone. But for files and photos you can use Dropbox. I never keep photos on my phone... they go to Dropbox and then I back them up by burning them to a disc. Then I safely delete them from my phone.

A tip about iCloud; it's a syncing service and not a backup service. If you delete a photo from iCloud it also gets deleted from your device. If you delete a photo from your device it also gets deleted from iCloud. This is why a lot of folks will recommend Dropbox.



My husband has the SE. While he loves it immensely he knows it'll be time to upgrade soon. Don't get me wrong, it's a badarse little phone and it feels amazing in your hand, but you can definitely tell the difference in snappiness between it and my 8 Plus.

Hopefully everyone here who leaves a comment will offer up enough information for you to make your own informed decision about which device you'll choose and how much space you'll need. Good luck!

I agree on Spotify. Has the most options for adding music.