Just wait till you break it to buy a new one, if you’re lucky you’ll be able to hold on to your phone long enough that it will feel like an actual upgrade instead just being new.
I did that but lost my headphones jack with connected built in quad DAC, a reliable fingerprint reader mounted on the back of the phone, and front facing camera that wasn’t crammed under my screen causing an annoying dead spot…
A reliable, fast fingerprint reader that you can feel, where your index finger is naturally placed already when removing your phone from a pocket, so that you can effortlessly unlock the phone before you’ve even got it out.
Not having to wake the screen to see whether the reader is, either reach awkwardly with the thumb of the hand holding the phone, or use a finger from the other hand, then press hard maybe three times until it works (with the added side effect of a bright flash of light at night).
Why did they think this was better? Could we maybe have one on the edge, or the power button?
Having my fingerprint sensor located on the power button of my phone has been an absolute life changer. I have zero clue why companies keep insisting on putting the fingerprint sensor in some nebulous place under the screen or on the back. It’s beyond me.
I am responding to you on an LG V30 that I haven’t been able to part with because of the things you mentioned.
The battery life sucks and sometimes the fingerprint reader on the back doesn’t work right but I can’t bring myself to buy something new that doesn’t have the features I want. It just feels like I’d be downgrading.
You’re on the phone that died on me and I felt the exact same way, if you find something you’re happy with let me know, so far I’ve HATED my Pixel 7 Pro experience but 50% of that is probably a combination of more recent updates to Android than I had been running on my LG and the specific PixelOS features or lack there of in comparison.
Yo, write better titles. I thought this was a video about how they didn’t want to upgrade to Android 15 or something. But it’s not. It’s just about not buying a new phone every two years 😆 In my opinion buying a new replacement isn’t ‘upgrading’.
10+ years ago, it was very common to get an upgrade to your phone ever two years (or less). And at the time, there was a lot more variability in phones. And I mean in more than just battery life, storage capacity, camera quality, processor, etc. There used to be a variety of form factors to consider, sizes, genuinely different features and functionalities. The iPhone came about in 2009, and other smart phones soon followed, but even then there were still phones with physical keyboards, digital keyboards with stylus typing, flip phones, etc. Once smart phones completely dominated the market and all the manufacturers started just copying each other’s features and designs, eventually we got to the status quo of today where they’re all essentially the same. The only major difference now is the OS, and that’s largely just down to iOS vs Android.
That’s kind of the point. There was a time in the 2010s when each new device could do something that they couldn’t previously do. But it seems like the market has figured out what people want from their phones and that’s what they are getting now.
I mean, I don’t see the point in not upgrading when your device supports it. The interface pretty much stays the same at this point, and they usually do improve on security, and other background stuff.
Personally, although the terms have become increasingly blurred over the years, I refer to changing to a new version of software (including an OS, and both ideally with some improvements) as updating it rather than upgrading.
I reserve upgrade more for changes of hardware with some form of improvement over its predecessor. I’d suspect I may not be alone in this, but I dunno how common it may be. When switching to a mix of both, I simply say I’m getting a new [insert specific device depending on which].
Although I’d hesitate to call many new phones an all-around upgrade when they’re either removing features (headphone jack/expandable storage) or getting more cumbersome to hold (can you even call some modern phones a handset anymore?).
I’m still using an iPhone 7. I might get an upgrade at some point because multiple things are broken and I don’t really have space on the storage anymore, but I totally agree that you can live many years with the same phone without any problems.
It seems like each new version of Android locks down the file system in some new way that breaks a core part of something I do, so I actively don’t want to upgrade.
I can’t root my phone because I need my banking apps readily avaliable right now.
This is why I’ve ended up keeping my Pixel 4 on Android 10. I’ve made backups and flashed the latest versions, only to come back because every time they’ve broken something I need the phone to do.
It makes me glad that this is a secondary phone because I can happily keep it on this ancient version of Android and not give a shit about the security.
I’m still bitter about USB mass storage being removed for only MTP. MTP sucks, any time I use it for more than a few small files it always ends up dying partway through.
My last phone upgrade was about four years ago (Nokia 6 to Samsung A31) and that was only to try and get YouTube Music’s shitty app to work properly (spoiler : it didnt). Broke the screen on it dropping it while trying to put a mask on, got that fixed (that was over two years ago). Its still going, and will keep it until it dies
I dont upgrade my phone because I’m interested in upgrading, I upgrade when I have to
iPhone XS Max, 2018. The only reason I might update is for the better camera. But this is marginal. I tend to buy one of the top line iPhone once in about 5 years, with enough memory. And they last long time. I might consider changing battery instead and get another 2 years… Apple is also super good with software updates on old hardware.
They deliberately slowed down phones with defective batteries to prevent them from randomly crashing. Which would cause a lot more people to complain than the phone being slower, but not turning off at 30%.
The people complaining about Apple “slowing their phone” are the same people that complained about their phone dying while it still showed the battery at 30% and losing data from it.
It did that because the battery couldn’t supply enough power to run the phone. So which would you prefer? Randomly corrupt data due to a consumed battery, or a slightly slower phone that could maintain stability until you had the chance to replace the battery or phone?
The real mistake Apple made was in the messaging and lack of comprehensive release notes, allowing the news cycle to dominate the narrative.
I finally upgraded my phone after 7 years. I had trouble picking out a phone that didn’t remove everything… no headphone jack, no sd card slot and we’re supposed to call that an upgrade? (What I got still has those thankfully)
There is at least the Unihertz Jellystar, which is a fairly nice tiny phone. Personally I’m likely stuck with Pixel phones because I’m a big fan of Graphene OS, otherwise I’d likely pick one up after my Pixel 4a fails, which might be awhile, since it’s still going strong.
I went from an OPPO find 5, to oneplus 1, then OnePlus 5, and now pixel7a. The OnePlus 1 was probably the only one I was impressed by and the others were just replacements. I don’t plan on changing until Linux phones are less of a pain in the anoos or if the 7a gets totalled. I’m the family tech guy for a lot of people that always upgrade to the latest phone and nothing worthwhile ever happens in a decade of phones any more. If anything they get worse with more planned obsolescence and proprietary bullshit.
I upgrade less than I used to, and I only do mid-range devices now, like the Pixel A series or Motorola G series. That kind of bracket. I’m just going to install Lineage OS on it anyway and it works fine so why pay more when I don’t need that.
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