iPhone: The Missing Manual, 10th Edition

Appendix A. Signup & Setup

You gotta admit it: Opening up a new iPhone brings a certain excitement. There’s a prospect of possibility, of new beginnings. Even if you intend to protect your iPhone with a case, there are those first few minutes when it’s shiny, spotless, free of fingerprints or nicks—a gorgeous thing.

This chapter is all about getting started, whether that means buying and setting up a new iPhone, or upgrading an older model to the new iOS 10 software that’s described in this book.

Buying a New iPhone

Each year’s new iPhone model is faster, has a better camera and screen, and comes packed with more features than the previous one. Still, “new iPhone” doesn’t have to mean the iPhone 7 ($650, either up front or spread out over 2 years) or 7 Plus ($770). You can still get an iPhone 6 for $550, or the SE for $400. (Thank heaven, the U.S. carriers no longer obscure the true price of the phone in 2-year contracts.) And, of course, you can get older models dirt cheap, used.

In any case, once you’ve chosen the model you want, you also have to choose which cellphone company you want to provide its service: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, or Sprint. Each has something to offer.

Verizon has the best U.S. cellular coverage, and by far the most 4G LTE (high-speed Internet) areas. AT&T’s high-speed Internet networks are faster than anyone else’s. T-Mobile’s plans cost the least in many ways (free texting and Internet when you’re overseas; unlimited music and video without using up any of your ...