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I had an S10E that I loved. But then I had a baby and wanted better pictures as memories. So I upgraded the camera I had on me at all times, and went for an S22U. Took a while to get used to the huge size difference, but I couldn't be happier.
Also got it 'used' from Facebook marketplace, brand new in its box for almost half price. The guy had it as a free upgrade from his service provider, didn't want to change phones, and wanted some quick cash for it. Had all the paperwork and everything.
Because the megacorps who make the phones like money and that's how they get it.
From an individual perspective, unless you can afford it and like having the new phones, there's basically no point in upgrading every year.
I bought an unlocked Pixel 6 near launch on sale and intend to use it until security updates cease (five years from launch).
The only feature that motivated me to upgrade to my latest phone was a much better camera and I wanted that for traveling.
My 4 year old iPhone XR is holding strong, so im gonna keep it a couple of years more!
iPhones tend to last a long time for some reason. They can last up to 7 years.
iPhone XR gang woo! Mine still works perfectly fine but I’m worried that iOS 17 is gonna be the last version for the XR :(
The Google Pixel 7P that I have now I bought because I dropped the 6P on the ground so bad that it wouldn’t even start. The 6P I got because it had significantly better camera and was faster than the OnePlus 6T I had before. I know you say 100mp doesn’t make a difference from 12mp but there’s really a huge difference in image quality with the Pixel compared to the 6T, especially in low-light conditions or when you zoom. And it’s not just me, people have been commenting at how good the pictures are without even knowing what phone I own.
I also enjoy new features like the gestures to control apps. Overall, apps and the OS get slower because new features keep being added, and security updates stop coming, so I need to renew the hardware to keep up. I use the phone for hours a day every day, all year around, so I think it’s worth putting some money into it. But I don’t get a new one every year. Maybe 3 years, or possibly 2 years depending on what gets released.
Your carries never gives it to you cheap. At best they sell you it at cost. More likely they sell it to you at MSRP. the cost is wrapped up in your monthly, and they hope people are too stupid or lazy to notice.
It's turned into the car stereo thing. In 2002, I wanted a rainbow vomit colored faceplate, CD-R and MP3 support, CD carousel in the trunk, a USB port and a steering wheel remote
Now I just want bluetooth, an aux in and a volume button.
Until phones merge with a steamdeck or something, there isn't much to look forward to anymore.
My phone from 2014 pretty much did everything my current phone can. Certainly nothing worth spending hundreds of dollars on if you have a working cell.
I have been using my poco f1 for more than 4 years now, the only problem i have had is the battery. It has an sdcard slot, headphone jack, 6gb of ram which has been more than enough and latest lineageos is supported. see https://fsfe.org/activities/upcyclingandroid/index.en.html
Been rocking a oneplus 8 for the last two and half years, replaced the back glass a couple times and the battery once. I definitely don't baby my phone, it's a tool meant to be used, but overall am pretty good at not dropping things so I can reckon I'll keep going with it until it gets too slow or something breaks.
When choosing a new phone, I usually go for something new that's one level below the latest flagship, and check to see if LineageOS is being developed for it, as then I know it's likely to receive software updates for long after I've moved on to the next.
Thing is, I like, many people here, am a techie, and I'm not afraid to install custom ROMs and open up my phone for repair. The majority of people don't want that, so I'm really looking forward to the upcoming EU regulation on user replaceable batteries! Then it's possible for everyone to keep their phone for longer.
Huawei P30 Lite. 4 years. More or less 1:1 size of S10e, compact enjoyer with big hands. Got battery replaced for a whopping $20, officially. No security problems, keep my Firefox with uBO updated, solid firewalling and app permissions in check.
I have a whopping total of 5 closed source apps (including Whatsapp and Discord sandboxed in work profile) with internet connection, all of which are fully safe as far as security goes, if not privacy. One of the other apps is safe for privacy as well. All of my apps that are not these 5, are installed from F-Droid.
I will upgrade though, because the camera on this at night is no longer competent enough, and there are camera sensors far superior than 1/2.8" on main and 1/4.0" on ultrawide. (1/1.0" main and 1/1.5" ultrawide are peak hardware these days, amounting to atleast 2x better photos and videos which is significant and worth it.)
I normally upgrade every two years when my contract runs out. It's cheaper than what I'd be for for an unlimited 5g sim only deal.
Plus this time I want away from my Fold!
Unpopular opinion: everyone focuses on productivity, then on features. Literally zero consideration for performance. Also lack of customization. I can flash Linux, hackintosh or any other random OS on any laptop I buy, but not on smartphone...
Kind of sucks that my Cat S62 Pro smartphone suck ass with it's slowness and lags and I can blame Cat as a manufacturer for that, but lack of standards (so I can flash generic OS onto it simply sucks).
So I am forced to buy new phone every 1-2 years because it gets slow... 🤷
Oh wait! Batteries are not replaceable! USB-C port is also incresibly hard to change!
This is why I exclusively stick to Pixels. Honestly don't really care about the hardware, it's okay. But it's the only phone that lets you flash it and reflash it with a custom key so you can have verified boot on a custom OS.
Android is a tricky situation, there's very few phones that actually allow you to unlock the bootloader, and only Pixels can do it securely. Samsungs are basically a no go unless it's an older phone that has gotten cracked open. Like Samsung S5 old.
So ironically Google phones are by far the best to degoogle your phone lol, and they actually go above and beyond to let you do so. Even the new Pixel fold and tablets support this. I personally recommend GrapeheneOS or CalyxOS for these devices, both are really good.
I choose my custom OS first and then pick the actual physical phone second. For me, I value software over hardware, but obviously that's important too.
My mother in law died after long sickness and she kinda connected phones, not the best, not the most expensive, but now I'm stuck with 8 phones, all ok for me, this one has that, and that one has this, I'm very confused what I should do, but on principle I'll never to buy a phones for 1300 € plus, that's about what a decent one would cost me these days, nope, never. Now I'm up to rooting My collection of Chinese spying apparati, yeah! I WILL SURVIVE THIS! Cheaply!
I had my iPhone X for 3 years and would have kept my 12 Pro for 3 years, but the 14 Pros came in purple and I decided to go for it. I fully intend on keeping my 14 Pro for at least 3 years. Maybe even go 4 this time around and just get the battery replaced at the end of year 2. I don’t game on my phone at all, I have lots of other devices for that, so I don’t need the latest and greatest every year.
Still rocking my iPhone 7, and I’m planning on using it until it completely gives out. I agree that there’s very little reason to get a new phone, these days pretty much all of the improvements are just incremental and have no effect on the basic functions—calls, texts, web browsing, etc. Hell, even the fancy new cameras aren’t really needed, past 12mp (~4K) your camera quality doesn’t really make a big impact on image quality (most people have 1080p or 2k displays anyways) and you can only get so far with multiple lenses and AI stuff.
I spoke about this with a person, who wanted to get a new phone and replace their 3yo model. Ultimately, they just wanted a new thing, because it'd make them happier. That's irrational.
I upgraded twice from Redmi note 7 to Redmi note 9 to poco X4, only reason I updated was because my siblings lost their phones and I saw it as an opportunity to try a newer version of something I liked.
I don't think I'll upgrade unless the new phone also has an IR blaster and headphone jack. The IR blaster is so incredibly convenient
I generally start looking to replace mine around the time that Google Maps starts becoming laggy. That's usually around the 3 year mark for me. After 4 years things get pretty bad.
Nexus 5 -> Pixel 2 -> Pixel 6a
Practically every app update grows its respective compute and memory footprint. And over time, it adds up. Combine that with the big jumps in resource usage that come with OS updates, and eventually things just start slowing down.