Your teenager has made it clear: they want their first phone. And not just any phone — it has to be an iPhone And maybe because it's the holidays or because you've had a long think about whether they're ready to carry around a phone, but this time around, you're inclined to give them the iPhone they've clamored for.
Still, as you perused the best iPhones available right now, you can't help but wince at those prices — $799 for one of Apple's latest iPhone 17 models, and that's assuming you stick with a 256GB base model. Even the midrange iPhone 16e, the "cheapest" phone Apple sells, will set you back $599. Everyone wants that Parent of the Year accolade, but at these prices?
I have a solution, one that I've used when it was time to get my own child a phone — get a new iPhone, sure, but that doesn't mean it has to be the newest iPhone.
I'm not talking about a refurbished model, though that's certainly an option. Instead, I would turn to a fresh-out-of-the-box iPhone that isn't necessarily the latest and greatest model. Rather, I'd look at an iPhone that's a year or two old, whether that's the iPhone 16 (currently available at a reduced price of $699 at Apple) or — even better — an iPhone 15.
Why an older iPhone makes sense
But there are other reasons why an older model — an iPhone 15 in this case — is ideal for your kid's first phone. Yes, there are some trade-offs by not opting for the latest hardware, but at this point, they're pretty minimal.
The iPhone 15 runs on an A16 Bionic chipset, a couple of generations behind the A19 currently powering the iPhone 17. But the performance gap that exists between those two chips is not likely something to translate to real world use, not unless your kid is using their phone to run particularly demanding tasks.
You'll give up some other improvements, like the 48MP ultrawide camera Apple added to the iPhone 17. But I would contend that the 12MP ultrawide shooter on the iPhone 15 takes good enough landscapes, and besides, you can still count on a 48MP main sensor on the older phone to shoulder much of the image-capture duties. This is still a very good camera phone, even if it's a few years old.
The iPhone 15 lacks improvements like the Action and Camera Control buttons — I'd contend the latter isn't that big a loss – and in the biggest trade-off, you'll get a display with a 60Hz refresh rate instead of the iPhone 17's 120Hz panel. That means scrolling won't be as smooth, but I think that's a trade-off worth making for a less expensive first phone.
The iPhone 15 doesn't support Apple Intelligence features, which would seem to be another notable sacrifice, but let's be brutally honest here about Apple's AI efforts to date — at present, there's no must-have Apple Intelligence feature. And by the time Apple ups its AI game, your high school-aged child will have likely graduated and can afford to get their own phone.
Finding the best iPhone 15 deal
The other reason these trade-offs don't seem that significant is that you can easily find the iPhone 15 available at a substantial discount — much less than you would pay for even an iPhone 16e. And at some carriers, you can even pick up Apple's two-year-old flagship at no cost.
There are caveats to any free iPhone 15 offer, though. At T-Mobile, for example, the free iPhone 15 is available to customers who switch to the carrier by bringing over their current phone number. That may not be feasible for first-time phone owners, but T-Mobile also offers the iPhone 15 for free when you trade in a device and select a specific unlimited data plan.
Verizon has a similar offer, as you can get a free iPhone 15 by opening up a new line of data with the carrier and signing up for one of its unlimited plans. That's an ideal option for existing Verizon customers who can simply add their kid to their current plan.
If you'd rather not commit to any carrier, though, I think the best iPhone 15 deal is available at Best Buy, which has marked the cost of an unlocked model down to $499 — $100 cheaper than what you'd pay for an iPhone 16e. Should you decide to activate with either AT&T or Verizon, though, the iPhone 15 price drops by another $100, bringing your cost down to $399.
Final thoughts
I bought my daughter's first phone last year, just before the iPhone 16's release. And I opted for an older model then, which at the time was an iPhone 14 available for free from my carrier of choice. If my daughter has any complaints about toting around a phone that first debuted a few years ago, she's kept them to herself; she just enjoys having a phone of her own.
And that's the key thing to keep in mind here. It's the idea of having their own phone that matters to your kid, not how new the hardware is. Meanwhile for parents, it's the cost of the device itself that matters above all, which is why an older model makes sense.
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