My iPhone 7 lasted 7 years before I replaced it a few months ago (with a used but immaculate 12 Pro)

The only reason I replaced it was it needed a new battery, and the screen was cracked in a corner so it would also need a new display - removing the display to fit the new battery would have caused the display to break into several pieces. If the screen had not been cracked I would have just got a new battery and continued using for another 1-2 years.

It never felt slow. And because it had the solid-state home button, that never wore out

when others seem to go through phones every couple of years

Those people either :

• want a new shiny phone
• were offered an upgrade by their network and thought the new phone was “free”, not realising that once a phone is paid off you can save a lot of money by moving to a SIM-only plan
• dropped/broke their phone
• didn’t realise you can fit a new battery to a phone and give it a new lease of life

When I got my first iPhone (3G, 2008) the only other realistically viable options here in the U.K. were:

• The very first HTC Android phone, and the platform was so new that nobody knew how that would go or what apps would be available
• BlackBerry Storm, a terrible device with a truly awful “clicky” touchscreen and no WiFi. According to Wikipedia “In a 2015 book, Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, the authors argued that the Storm was the single biggest disaster in smartphone history.”
• A variety of “smartphones” that had plastic keyboards, like the 4 that Jobs used as examples in the original iPhone Keynote as why you don’t want a hardware keyboard.

So yeah, I chose iPhone.

I have a Roku stick that supports Airplay, and I can mirror my iPhone and iPad to the TV using that, costs a lot less than an Apple TV box

I owned an iPhone 7 for 7 years. For the last 2 years it stopped getting the annual iOS updates, but other than that it worked great.

So from date of first release, it seems that a typical,iPhone should last at least 7 years. Some people still use older phone like the 6S today.

That means an iPhone SE 2020 should last until at least 2027, perhaps a year or two longer than that?

It all depends on the price and condition.

The 12 Pro models have 6GB RAM (the non-Pro 12 has 4GB) and a processor that’s modern enough to give many years of high performance service. And the triple camera setup is great.

Obviously each year the new models add more features and performance, but that adds more cost. And it’s about getting a balance between the two.

I just got a like-new 12 Pro 256 with a brand new genuine Apple battery, and I paid less than £400. The equivalent 15 Pro 256 would cost £1100, so my new phone was around 1/3 the price of a new 15 Pro 256, but is way more than 1/3 the phone. And it should easily last 5 years.

But everyone makes different choices and has different needs. A 13 Pro or 14 Pro would be better, faster, 120hz display, etc. but they would be more expensive. And it’s about finding the right balance for you

Only you can make the right decision. Compare specs and prices and make an informed choice.