Apple skyrocketed the price of owning an iPhone with the launch iPhone X last year, and it continued the trend with iPhone XS and XS Max. But we are here to tell you that five years down the line these might be worth every penny you spent.

The iPhone 5s which launched six years ago in the year 2013 with iOS 7 on-board, received the iOS 12 update earlier this week with some new features. It’s great that Apple is supporting a device for up to 6 years, but what blew our socks off is the performance improvements brought in by iOS 12.

Thanks to iOS 12, the six-year-old iPhone 5s now runs faster than ever. It now performs even better than it performed six years ago.

The iOS 12 update not only added some great new features but also incredibly improved the performance of all supported iOS devices.

The iPhone X from last year is another example of iOS 12’s greatness, and our point of this article. The device launched with a price tag of $999, and even after a year, it is keeping its value neck-to-neck with the new launches of 2018, iPhone XS and XS Max.

If you’ve read/watched any reviews of iPhone XS and XS Max, you’ll know that iPhone X (with iOS 12) performs just as well as the new iPhones. Don’t believe us? Here it from one of America’s finest tech reviewer, Marques Brownlee.

Am I trying to justify the $999 tag?

Before you think of it, let me get this out of the way. The $999 price for a smartphone is ridiculous. You should definitely buy the Godly phones like the Poco F1 from Xiaomi, or the Huawei Honor Play which ship with flagship processors of 2018 for less than $250. It’s a luxury to use these phones as you get to buy a new phone every year without breaking a sweat.

But if you’re someone who wouldn’t like to get out of Apple’s ecosystem, you’re stuck with the $999 tag.

Thankfully though, with performance benefits from software updates like iOS 12, you can buy an iPhone now and use it for three-four years without losing much.

So that’s how I see $999 iPhone is a value for money. What do you think?