iPhone 11
Shares rank 38 of 46 smartphones by recommenders
Still receives current iOS updates and takes very good photos, so many owners see no reason to upgrade. Common caveat: the battery wears out and performance slows after recent updates.
5 people recommended iPhone 11 in Hacker News comments, 4 had mixed feelings and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 14 comments.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- mixed feelings
- 4
- warn against or regret it
- 5
The record
Recommended in 3 of 12 months
In 5 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
- Recommended in 5 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 20% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 14 of the 15 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Still receives latest iOS updates
“iOS 27 supports devices all the way down to the iPhone 11, so I think they're doing pretty well here.”
Comment from 9 Jun 2026 in “The iPhone's Last Stand” “The iPhone 11 was released almost 7 years ago and is still supported by the latest iOS.”
Comment from 17 Jun 2026 in “GrapheneOS has been ported to Android 17 and official releases are coming soon” Still fine, no need to upgrade
“Still feeling zero pressure to upgrade.”
Comment from 2 Apr 2026 in “Apple at 50” “Chugging along just fine.”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Apple Introduces iPhone 17e”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Slows down or glitches after updates
“How does that glitch and require 2.5x the performance 7 years later with no hardware changes whatsoever”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Ex-Apple engineer says Apple deliberately slows older phones via updates” “over the last 2 OS updates, its reached that exact point where it is 'glitching”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Ex-Apple engineer says Apple deliberately slows older phones via updates” “Really annoying when that happens! Almost unusable phone.”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Apple WWDC 2026 Livestream” - Comment from 1 May 2026 in “Apple accidentally left Claude.md files Apple Support app”
Battery wears out quickly
“I had a perfectly fine iPhone 11 I bought new. The first thing I replaced in it was battery.”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “All phones sold in the EU to have replaceable batteries from 2027” “The battery is garbage on it, but everything is still totally fine.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max”
Other smartphones people recommend
The four most recommended other smartphones, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple iPhone | 438 | 190 | 789 | 36% | 12 | 7 yrs97 people | — |
| Fairphone | 110 | 42 | 94 | 54% | 12 | 3 yrs14 people | — |
| iPhone 13 mini | 105 | 32 | 44 | 70% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Apple iPhone Pro | 90 | 45 | 138 | 39% | 12 | 4 yrs24 people | — |
| iPhone 11This page | 5 | 4 | 5 | 50% | 3 | — | — |
Also compared with iPhone SE, Jolla Phone, Nokia N900 and Apple iPhone 12 mini.
What people said
14 of the 15 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The battery is garbage on it, but everything is still totally fine.”
“the charging port was getting super unreliable”
“from what I've seen on the iPhone 11 subreddit, it improves performance”
“The iPhone 11 was released almost 7 years ago and is still supported by the latest iOS.”
“iOS 27 supports devices all the way down to the iPhone 11, so I think they're doing pretty well here.”
“Really annoying when that happens! Almost unusable phone.”
“How does that glitch and require 2.5x the performance 7 years later with no hardware changes whatsoever”
“over the last 2 OS updates, its reached that exact point where it is 'glitching”
“My iPhone 11 is fairly slow now”
“I had a perfectly fine iPhone 11 I bought new. The first thing I replaced in it was battery.”
“at this point the cameras on there are stupidly good”
“Still feeling zero pressure to upgrade.”
“Chugging along just fine.”
“file handling on the iPhone is awful”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.