Other than your carrier give it for free or cheap, I don’t really see the reason why should you buy new phone. I’ve been using Redmi Note 9 for past 3 years and recently got my had on Poco F5. I don’t see the point of my ‘upgrade’. I sold it and come back to my Note 9. Gaming? Most of them are p2w or microtransaction garbage or just gimped version of its PC/Console counterpart. I mean, $400 still get you PS4, TV and Switch if you don’t mind buying used. At least here where I live. Storage? Dude, newer phone wont even let you have SD Card. Features? Well, all I see is newer phones take more features than it adds. Headphone jack, more ads, and repairability are to name a few. Battery? Just replace them. However, my Note 9 still get through day with one 80% charge in the dawn. Which takes 1 hour.
I am genuinely curious why newer phone always selling like hot cakes. Since there’s virtually no difference between 4gb of RAM and 12gb of RAM, or 12mp camera and 100mp camera on phone.
I can’t see why you can’t see the difference. I’ve been swapping every few years from the lowest tier phone that’s recently come out and each change feels like night and day each and every time. Perhaps you should stop buying overpriced phones?
Galaxy S10e gang checking in. Resoldered the USB port because it was corroded. Everything else is working perfectly fine. No plans to ditch it as of now.
My number one reason: battery life
They could make the battery last 5+ years before degradation if they made the phones a bit thicker to get the same battery life with lithium iron phosphate cells instead of lithium ion cells. They also don’t turn into spicy pillows or catch fire really too if that means anything to you.
I really don’t understand the obsession with having the thinnest possible phone but also selling $2,000 folding phones that are thick as hell.
Selling the thinnest phone, but ship it with a silicone case because the thin-ness makes it too fragile. And also one bit of the phone will just be thicker anyway.
It seems almost like parody. Phones are literally too thin for their own components. If anybody knows of a decent line of phones that aren’t overly skinny, please let me know for when I need a new phone.
I used to get a new one every two years. Back then the changes were big enough to make it worthwhile. Nowadays there is not much to get from a new phone other than the hardware keeping up with the software and an improved camera.
I’d say, as with any device, keep it until it annoys you or doesn’t get any more security updates.
My iPhone 11 from 2019 starts to feel laggy and the touch screen is not responding as well anymore. Battery health is still over 90% but due to higher energy demand of the newer OSs and apps I often still need to juice up during the day. So this year I’m finally going to get the new model but I’ll keep the 11 as a webcam.
There is no point. We realised it only recently. If you remember the cell phones from the time before smartphones, there hadn’t been much technological progress. My first cellphone, a Nokia, could store up to 10 short messages. It’s pedecessor had the same storage capacity. Of course, there were technological milestones that have been passed, e.g. antennas which didn’t protrude out of the phone, vibration motors, (in comparison to today) really shitty photo-cameras (and the buggy software that was needed to transfer the photos to the computer), etc.
The point is, that they all were capable to do the same thing: calling and texting. Looking back, there was not really a need to replace the old cellphone. Advertising made us want new shiny things.
This changed when smartphones emerged. Hardware wise, there are not many differences. Some have faster processors than others, others have better cameras. The storage capabilities are sufficient. For the normal user these specifications don’t matter. All smartphones are capable of accessing the (real) internet. The main difference today is in the software (operating system). Older phones run on software that is too outdated to keep pace, and the software support is often limited, which as a result leads to possible security flaws - because the user is supposed to upgrade the hardware, not the operating system only. And that’s why new phones are bought, despite the old ones would still do.
My smartphone ist running on Android 8 (Nougat). It’s still working and is sufficient for my needs. But I wouldn’t run my online banking with that phone. Also, it gets pretty hot and slow when navigating with Google Maps.
Conclusion: It’s not the hardware specifications which lead to the replacement of smartphones. It’s the more complex (security wise) software requirements certain applications (online banking apps, medical apps, e.g. insuline tracking apps, overall more sophisticated apps that runs slow on an outdated smartphone) demand today.
