I bought mine at release, to replace an iPhone 6 (which itself replaced an Android device of higher spec because I was tired of the treadmill and a friend sold

I bought mine at release, to replace an iPhone 6 (which itself replaced an Android device of higher spec because I was tired of the treadmill and a friend sold it to me used). So mine's closer to 3.5 years old than to 2.5. And when you slot that against Android options, 3.5 years is a lot for a usable, secure life of a mobile device. I can safely assume I'll get five years of good, secure perf out of any Apple device from the last five years and another 2-3 years (at minimum) of tolerable performance, and that's pretty hard to argue with in this market. Don't get me wrong, it's not enough and I'd like it to be better; I'd like all hardware reusability to be better. I'm pretty big on it; I still have an iPad 3 and a Nexus 7 in use as house kiosks (which sidesteps the security issue that phones necessarily have). But if I am maximizing useful life, buying Apple devices has been less fraught for most, if not all, of my adult life.