Sometimes I find it hard to send away that old phone even if I know I have to. Indeed, it’s more or less a tool to get things done, but it came along for the ride for 3 years of my life anyway. I held it in my hand, reveled over the tech specs when it first came out, and loved the way the purple shimmered off the Stainless Steel frame.
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Having been in my pocket or on my desk for the last 3 years, it will always remind me of this time period: the memories, connections, people, the journey, and where I was at this point in life. There’s wistful nostalgia for a device having been so solid for so long, the personal growth from this time as an individual, and the journey of it all.
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What piqued my interest in the 14 Pro

At the time I had an iPhone 12 Pro Max, and the edges of the Stainless Steel band were too sharp to feel comfortable holding. I ended up downsizing to a Pro versus a Pro Max, and almost right away I fell in love with the look of the 14 Pro, and knew I would have it for a while.

I wasn’t too sentimental about the 12 Pro Max, only had it for a year, and it didn’t coincide with any particularly important events in life.
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A VERY durable phone

It can be understandable to worry about damaging an expensive phone, despite device materials having gotten better over the years. One drop or one sudden move can render a perfectly good device into a headache-inducing liability.
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Toward the end of my tenure with the 12 Pro Max, I had the phone in my pocket, slipped, and the phone took the impact when I fell on my side. Ugh. With the 14 Pro Max, no matter how many times I dropped it with a clear case, the worst thing that happened in the duration of the life of the phone was mild screen delamination. There were some stuck screen pixels too, but no physical damage. I have high hopes for the iPhone Air.
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The phone was used to beta test iOS 26 for LEM articles

In addition to all the other life memories during the 3 year span, this was the device I tested iOS 26 on all summer and wrote articles about for Low End Mac.
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I’ll never forget the WWDC announcement, how I was glued to the screen pausing and un-pausing the event to write down notes. Or how between working days and nights when the new betas would come out, I would be testing things on my phone and doing hours of research to see what others had to say about that specific build – digging in Forums, 9to5Mac articles, YouTube videos, etc;

I’ll never forget all the times I held the device in my hand, switching between the camera modes to take pictures of different gadgets for our website, where I was in my life when I has this, and the living memories of being in front of a screen writing for Low End Mac during this time. So long, old friend.
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