I actually bought an iPhone 15 right before the iPhone 16 launch — here’s why

I did something the other day that I usually advise people never to do — I bought an iPhone within two months of a likely Apple event where new iPhones are almost certain to debut. Or, to be completely accurate about what I did, I actually bought two iPhones.

By doing so, I'm passing up on whatever wonders the iPhone 16 promises, and based on rumors so far, those wonders should be quite notable. Apple's standard iPhone is likely to gain the Action button that current adorns the iPhone 15 Pro models, and all new iPhones have been tipped to get Capture buttons.

Speaking of the Pro models, were I to have planned paying up for an iPhone 16 Pro , I could expect a larger screen and an upgraded telephoto lens. And, of course, the new iPhones will be able to run all those Apple Intelligence features Apple's been hyping up this summer.

But I'm cool with giving up all that. Because I got a pretty good deal on my purchase that more than makes up for the awkward timing.

Let's make a deal

I guess I should explain. Neither of the new iPhones in my possession are for me. Rather, the iPhone 15 that we planned on buying is now my wife's. And the surprise iPhone 14 purchase I also ended up making has given my teenage daughter her very first smartphone.

This was not the plan when we set out to buy a new phone for my wife. Instead, we were going to get her the iPhone 15, and then hand over her aging but still-capable-of-running-the-latest-software iPhone XR to my daughter. And why not? The XR may be long in the tooth, but it's still powerful enough to upgrade to iOS 18 in the fall. And if my daughter happened to damage a 5-year-old phone, well, c'est le guerre .

Well, you know the old saying: Make plans, and God laughs. I'd amend that to: Make phone upgrade plans, and Verizon offers you a deal.

Verizon is our wireless carrier, because their network is particularly strong where we live, work and recreate and we had a fairly solid monthly cell phone plan grandfathered in from when it was just me and the missus needing monthly service. So when we outlined our objectives to Verizon — get my wife an iPhone 15 on her old number, move the iPhone XR over to my daughter on a new line and switch the three of us to one of the carrier's unlimited data plans — they made us a pretty compelling counter-offer.

As a long-standing customer with a paid-off phone, my wife was eligible for a priority upgrade — the iPhone 15 could be hers for half off on a monthly installment plan... but only if she also traded in her iPhone XR. Doing so would have left my daughter without a hand-me-down phone, but not to worry — she could get an iPhone 14, and it would be free since we were opening a new line of data on the Welcome Unlimited plan, one of the best Verizon phone plans for families looking for unlimited data at the lowest rate the carrier charges.

But wait, there's more — it turns out all this phone purchasing and plan upgrading made us eligible to receive six months of the Disney bundle for free. So, half-a-year after giving Disney Plus the heave-ho because its monthly cost got to be too much, the streaming service was back in our lives at no extra cost. (And once that six-month trial runs out, we can always keep Disney Plus, Hulu with ads and ESPN Plus as a $10 add-on through Verizon — a $9 markdown from the regular price.)

Adding it up

So to sum up, we walked out of Verizon with a discounted iPhone 15, a free iPhone 14, a plan that gave all three of us unlimited data for a total of $120/month and free Disney streaming. Yeah, I'll take that over an iPhone 16.

(One caveat about the free and half-off devices. Like other carriers, Verizon gives you these discounts in the form of monthly bill credits; in Verizon's case, those credits are spread out over 36 months. So if we change wireless providers before then — not really a risk in our case — we'd be on the hook for the remaining balance of both the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14.)

Admittedly, I wound up with the deal Verizon offered because of very specific circumstances that other shoppers may not be facing. And after seeing our detailed iPhone 16 vs. iPhone 15 comparison, my wife was not terribly fussed about losing out on the rumored upgrades coming to Apple's phone this fall. Others will likely feel differently and should wait.

But if you are in the market for a new phone and not especially swayed by rumors surrounding upcoming devices like the iPhone 16 or Pixel 9 , it might be worth checking out the best Verizon phone deals right now — or the deals available at the carrier of your choice. You could wind up with a free or significantly discounted device that will serve you perfectly well

More from Tom's Guide

• Best cell phone deals
• iPhone 16 vs. iPhone 16 Pro: Biggest expected differences
• iPhone 15 deals — the biggest discounts I've seen so far