Older iPhones as good as new, pricier version

Going back as far as iPhone 7 will save money

NEW YORK — The $1,100 price tag on Apple’s latest iPhone turned heads when the company announced it earlier this month. But for less than half as much, you can still get a good camera, a decent-sized screen and other popular features.

Just buy a 2-year-old iPhone 7. That phone was Apple’s first to come with water resistance and its first to lose the standard headphone jack. Its 4.7-inch screen is adequate and on par with other smartphones, even though its resolution falls short of high definition. And the phone still has a fingerprint sensor and a home button, both of which have vanished in the latest iPhones.

Or, if you want to pay more for wireless charging, there’s the iPhone 8. An edge-to-edge screen? You’ll need the upcoming budget iPhone XR or one of its more expensive siblings. And if you want a supersized display, that’s where the $1,100 iPhone XS Max comes in. That model and a smaller version started selling in the U.S. and several other countries on Friday.

If you’re shopping for a new phone, it pays to think hard about what you really want and what you’re willing to pay for it. Improvements over the previous generation tend to be incremental, but can add up over time — and so do the sums you’ll pay for them.

iPhone 7 ($449)

The big jump in iPhone cameras came a generation earlier with the iPhone 6S, when Apple went from 8 megapixels to 12 megapixels in resolution. With the iPhone 7, the front camera goes from 5 megapixels to 7 megapixels, so selfies don’t feel as inferior. Headphones go into its Lightning port. It’s a pain when you want to listen to music while recharging the phone. For that, you need $159 wireless earphones called AirPods. Apple no longer includes an adapter for standard headphones; one will set you back $9 if you need it.

iPhone 7 Plus ($569)

This larger version of the iPhone 7 has a second camera lens in the back, allowing for twice the magnification without any degradation in image quality. The dual-lens camera alone is a good reason to go for a Plus.

iPhone 8 ($599)

New color filters in the camera produce truer and richer colors, while a new flash technique tries to light the foreground and background more evenly. Differences are subtle, though. The year-old model, similar in size to the iPhone 7, restores a glass back found in the earliest iPhones. That’s done so you can charge it on a wireless-charging mat, which also solves the problem of listening to music while charging.

iPhone 8 Plus ($699)

Again, the Plus version has a larger screen and a second lens. For those shots with blurred backgrounds, a new feature lets you add filters to mimic studio and other lighting conditions.

iPhone XS ($999)

As with the iPhone X it replaces, the new XS has a display that largely runs from edge to edge, getting rid of the home button. Many tasks require swipes rather than presses. The fingerprint ID sensor is replaced with facial recognition to unlock the phone. The display has about the same surface area as the iPhone 7 Plus and 8 Plus, while the phone is only slightly larger than the regular iPhone 7 and 8.

iPhone XS Max ($1,099)

This is essentially the “Plus” version of the iPhone XS. The phone itself is about the size of the Plus, but with more room for the display. This phone won’t feel big for existing Plus users.