Sorry if this is a dumb question, but does anyone else feel like technology - specifically consumer tech - kinda peaked over a decade ago? I’m 37, and I remember being awed between like 2011 and 2014 with phones, voice assistants, smart home devices, and what websites were capable of. Now it seems like much of this stuff either hasn’t improved all that much, or is straight up worse than it used to be. Am I crazy? Have I just been out of the market for this stuff for too long?
I dunno, I just upgraded my six year old phone to the latest model and it’s pretty fuckin dope. I don’t use anything Google, though, so I can’t comment on their assistant.
Much more storage space, a higher-rez 120hz screen (beautiful), cameras that rival my DSLR but take MUCH better low light pictures (cats), USB-C, more speed (I didn’t need more speed, but it’s nice that it’s there), and absolutely bonkers battery life (my old phone still lasted most of a day on one charge, which is crazy… but this phone lasts FOREVER!)
Much more storage space
Much more storage than 512GB?
a higher-rez 120hz screen (beautiful)
Much higher res than 2160x1080? And Is the difference between 90hz and 120hz really that noticeable?
cameras that rival my DSLR but take MUCH better low light pictures (cats)
I’m sure other devices already had cameras just as good, but for the comparison I’m going with I’ll grant that it’s very likely your new phone has a better camera
USB-C
Almost every phone was USB-C 6 years ago
more speed (I didn’t need more speed, but it’s nice that it’s there)
Probably the only number that would be extremely higher on your new phone is a benchmark for speed, which probably won’t mean much unless you’re a heavy gamer on your phone, and even then most games try to hit a wider audience so they have lower specs.
absolutely bonkers battery life
Much more than 4000 mAh?
So, let’s forget the camera and benchmarks for a second, compare your phone with this: https://www.phonearena.com/phones/Asus-ROG-Phone_id10914 which you could have bought 6 years ago for $900 and tell me if your new phone is really that much better or cheaper. Then let’s do the same with an extra 6 years, so find me the best smartphone you can from 2012 and see if it’s even comparable, and if you go back 6 extra years there weren’t even any smartphones. And that’s the whole point OP was making, your new shiny phone is great, but you could have gotten a very similar thing 6 years ago when you bought your previous model, you would still be wanting to change it now because that device would not have received updates and the battery would probably have started to lose it’s charge faster, etc, but technically phones today are not that much better than 6 years ago, especially not considering the amount of advances that happened in the 6 years prior to that, or the 6 before then.
