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The Apple iPhone 13 event occurred a few days ago and I decided it was time for another Apple product update, from my perspective.

New iPhones were introduced along with two updated iPads, the Apple Watch 7 and several Apple Fitness announcements. Overall, it was a pretty normal fall iPhone event. Pandemic style. For the most part, I’ve liked where they have gone with the online events but I am wondering if they are starting to get a little over produced? I fear the event production may start to over shadow the products!

Speaking of products, I was most looking forward to the new iPad Mini. I owned the first generation and always thought it was about the perfect reading device. The new one is everything I had hoped for! Well, except for the price. The $499 base price would be fine if they upped the memory to 128gb vs. the 64gb it comes with. In my humble opinion.

That’s probably my only complaint. I love the square edge design as well as the removal of the home button which results in additional screen area. There are early reports the A15 chip is a bit slower in the Mini than in the iPhone but we’ll have to wait and see how that plays out.

The base iPad was also updated. Same look with beefed up specifications. Check out Apple’s website for the details. It is an absolute bargain at $329!

The iPhones and the Apple Watch had the typical incremental upgrades to cameras, CPUs, screens, etc. That mid-term refresh thing. All solid products, just nothing earth shattering to report.

This brings me to the crux of things, would I buy any of these as an upgrade or addition to the devices I already have? Well, let’s look at that question, product by product starting with the iPad.

I have three iPads. An original iPad that is in a B&O device for music. That is the only thing it is used for these days but it still works well 11 years on! Then I have a first generation 9.7inch iPad Pro with the keyboard cover. It was the only generation of that size of iPad that was under a pound and it is my go to reading device these days. It still runs the current version of iPadOS and is still plenty fast. Finally, I have the second generation of the 12.9inch iPad Pro. It is used for reading, watching media and work. I’m writing on it now. Again, plenty fast and still current, OS wise.

So, do I need an iPad Mini? Obviously not. My thought was it would replace the 9.7 inch iPad Pro as it is lighter and smaller. But, after mulling it over for a bit, I came to the conclusion that it isn’t worth the upgrade. The 9.7 is still current, still fast, has a beautiful screen, is more versatile than the Mini (that larger size) and still light and small enough to be a great reading device. Pass on a new iPad.

I used to upgrade my iPhone every year when they were a “young” product. My favorite iPhone, style wise, is still the iPhone 4. It was simply stunning!

I’m still rocking the iPhone X, 4 years on, and still can’t see a reason to upgrade. Performance, battery, OS, etc. are all still great and current. My wife thinks there is something extra special about the camera on this phone as the photos from it look better than her newer iPhone. I have to agree with her. I do like the square edge design of the new phones and some of the camera updates. But, are the new phones “better” than the X that I have? Sure. But, not enough for me to spend the money on a new one. Maybe next year.

Now the Apple Watch is a little different story. I purchased an original Apple Watch when they first came out and returned it. The watch just didn’t offer anything that appealed to me enough to own it. However, when the Series 1 came out with the lower price and Apple had worked out where they were headed with the OS, I finally found it compelling enough to purchase.

Over the years it became one of my favorite devices as I used it all the time for bicycle riding, paying for things, directions, messages, etc. By the time the Series 6 came out last year, my Series 1 was getting painfully slow. I also liked the idea of a larger screen. I took the plunge and have found the Series 6 to be one of the best investments I’ve made! The screen and speed are both huge improvements along with GPS, battery life and the always on clock. It was a must have!

The Series 7 though? Well, it is a nice upgrade but again, not a must have. I’ll keep the 6 until it gets too slow or something more compelling comes along. Which may be another 4 or 5 years!

This seems to have become the state of new Apple devices, at least for me. The several year old products are still working great so why upgrade? Most every generation of the products only offer minor updates, which is fine as they are mature products. Basically it boils down to keeping the products until they wear out. Which can be a long time in the case of Apple!

By all means though, if something really catches your eye, it might be time to invest! Me, I’m trying to stay focused and not let my eye wander too much. One of those colorful 24inch iMacs would not look bad on my desk… Don’t wander eyes, don’t wander…