Okay but I’d rather hear this from someone who is actually using a 5+ year old phone, not a guy who has a 1 year old work phone that he “plans” to keep for an undefined amount of time. Everyone says this and then they break it and decide the cost of a repair isn’t worth it, or just cave to the first trade in deal they receive in their inbox. There is a lot of virtue signalling about e-waste and the environment from these tech reviewers and influencers on YouTube but very few of them actually follow their own guidelines.
My anecdote…I used my last phone until it died. It was around 4 years old and the eMMC storage failed from age, making the device a suddenly totally unusable brick. Before then, it had gotten very slow and laggy over time and the battery life degraded to be pretty sucky…barely surviving the workday on standby in my pocket.
From my experience, I don’t know that I would necessarily advise using a device for that long. The battery just gets too shitty and its sudden death made it a bit of a scramble to buy a new phone. Granted, my previous phone was fairly low end, but even with a high end device, batteries degrade to almost unusable levels after a few years. I know it sucks for the environment, but it seems like less of a headache to keep a phone for only like 2-3ish years and then upgrade it while it’s still working as opposed to waiting for it to irreparably bork itself.
Edit: If you’re able to do a battery replacement, I will say that it does change the conversation somewhat. But long gone are the days of easily user serviceable battery replacements for most phones. Yes, there are obscure phones out there that make it easier to swap out the battery, but these phones aren’t exactly prominent.
I have a Galaxy S10e, purchased the day it launched, 6 March 2019. Today, March 25 2024, it is 5 years old.
My phone is in good physical shape and running fine. The battery isn’t quite what it used to be, but it loads web pages and apps well, the UI is responsive, I look at new phones and there’s not a single thing there I want. When my previous phone, an S4 Mini, was this old (yes I had an S4 Mini in service for 5 years) it was getting kind of slow, there were apps in the app store that wouldn’t run, I had replaced the battery…I still wasn’t really looking forward to upgrading. My S10e is…fine. If it kept getting updates, I’d gladly keep it in service.
What’s more, I look out at what they’re advertising on phones now and I’m like “don’t need that. Actively don’t want that. Want to not have that. Okay the anti-glare coating would be nice. Don’t need AI. Don’t need titanium. I don’t game on my phone…”
What’s more, I look out at what they’re advertising on phones now and I’m like “don’t need that. Actively don’t want that. Want to not have that. Okay the anti-glare coating would be nice. Don’t need AI. Don’t need titanium. I don’t game on my phone…”
Yeah I know what you mean. Somewhere in that 2017/18/19 period phones suddenly began losing a lot of what I would consider important features like the option for a truly small size, headphone jacks, SD card slots and 16:9, uninterrupted displays and I don’t feel like any of the improvements since have justified that. I think the only thing that may force me to switch permanently to a newer device is if the 3G shutdown in Australia renders my older phones unusable. At the moment I’m using an XZ1 Compact and it’s still enjoyable to use because it nails so many of those features that I just can’t get in a newer device. I bought a secondhand razr 2023 at the start of the year but found I just preferred using older phones.
Are you really getting updates though? Samsung latest phones are expected to be getting updates for 7 years but as far as I know the s10 range isn’t officially supported anymore. Samsung don’t need to provide security updates to your phone anymore. I think the last one was Q4 of 2023 and it made the news because it was unexpected.
Yesterday I returned to redmi 4x after mi11 lite’s quality had been proven (motherboard issues, modem) plus my “professional” repairs not working well. It is somehow working very well. Xiaomi phones until 9-10th series were great.
I bought my LG V30 July 30, 2018. Still using it. The battery is of course not awesome but I’m not really a hard user so I get by. I installed a custom ROM around 2020. I’m on Lineage os 21 now. It’s perfectly fine. I guess I’ll upgrade somewhere this year cause the back cover seems to be coming off. I’m in no hurry though.
I mean, makes sense that people would rather get a new phone that costs the same as a repair.
That said, had been using a S5 myself for five years before the phone died. As I ain’t that big on mobile gaming (and the ones I play don’t demand much), the phone did all I needed to. Currently using a S10+, because that’s the last Galaxy S model with both headphones and SD support.
I’ve got a friend whose earpiece on their iPhone stopped working. They could repair it, or upgrade for basically the same price. Their iPhone is a few years old at this point (3 years I think, maybe older), which is crazy to me. But it’s true. When something breaks the cost of replacement is often on par with the cost of repair for small tech like phones. Th system is basically rigged to make you upgrade. Also, with a work phone, the upgrade schedule isn’t up to him. It’s up to the IT department and the corporate office. They may decide to buy new phones next year or something.
Using a pixel 4a still. OS is unsupported and battery life has gone down the drain. I’m holding out for the Pixel 8a because Google has pledged 8 years of support. I really wish decent phones came in sub-6.1" size, but days just what I’m working with. Losing the headphone jack will suck.
I’ve upgraded to Pixel 7 last year to run GrapheneOS. Honestly it was a very underwhelming upgrade. My 2019 Oneplus 7T is still kicking running LineageOS, could go back any second and not notice.
I sadly became one of those people last year. I had every intention of keeping my Pixel 5A for a long time but when faced with a $250 repair bill I bought a used pixel 6 for $240 instead of fixing it. I do regret it because the battery life and antenna on the 6 is awful compared to the 5a.
We’ll get an AI to caption and then summarise the transcript of the video that’s 8 mins long because the user (understandably) wanted to monetize the video.
An AI that can turn YouTube videos into written articles? Take My Money! I have been wanting this for a long time, I far far prefer stuff in writing to videos, I dont take information from audio/video anything like as well
Every single phone upgrade since 2012 was because the battery would get so bad, it lasts less than an hour.
And before someone goes, “Ah try ifixit”, the cost of the replacement parts was as much or more than just getting another used phone from like swappa. I’ve done the financial math countless times.
I miss buying batteries for like $20 and watching the phone become new again.
Which phones are you buying that have batteries that cost hundreds of dollars? Every battery replacement I’ve ever done cost waaaaaay less than the cost of a replacement phone.
Also replacement OEM batteries have always been stupid expensive. User replaceable or not. And 3rd party ones have always been garbage with very few exceptions (RIP zero lemon 10,000mah battery for my note 3).
I as well. At the very least, we need some fucking differences in the market. Every phone doesn’t have to be the same. Imagine the car market if all we could buy were Chrysler 300s. It looks sleek and nice but will crap out on you in a couple years and doesn’t really fit in well with your career as a general contractor. When it dies, you have to go buy another one and start the cycle over.
My Fairphone does, and I have already purchased a batter for 35 euros, which I keep in my drawer. The phone is now just over 3 years old, probably in a year or so I will replace it. I am aiming for at least 6-7 years lifespan.
Counterpoint: my eyes are not what they used to be 20 years ago and 6,5...7" screens hit the sweet spot for useability. Especially since bezels are super thin these days so a 6,7" phone today is barely larger in total dimensions than a 5,5" phone 6 or 7 years ago.
For me, it’s just the fact that phones… are phones. They all look the same, function the same, there’s just nothing new happening with them.
Sure, chips get better and faster, they’ll add another camera to it and fiddle with the dimensions a bit, but that’s not innovation. All phones look like boring rectangular slabs.
Back in the late 90’s, phones had way more variety and personality. Candybar, flip, even the sidetalkin’ taco that was the Nokia N-Gage. A Motorola Razr looked nothing like say, a Nokia or Sony Ericsson. And those were distinctly different from your Samsung or Mitsubishi phones (Yes, Mitsubishi made phones!).
I’d love it if we went back to more phone variety, but I fear the smartphone has effectively killed every other style. Most people wouldn’t ditch their big screen smartphone to go back to a small flip phone.
It really was the thing everyone latched on to with the N-Gage. I actually still own a first gen model that I bought on release. It was actually pretty decent, both as a phone and the games it played. Of course, it never really took off, but I enjoyed using it.
As for the sidetalking… I bought a headset for it to avoid that :D
I’ve never had a Droid, but loved every other Motorola that I’ve owned. Including the original StarTac and Razr. They made some really nice phones over the years.
I have pixel 3…works just fine. Except there are no more updates past Android 12 for this phone.
Apps that I need, like okta verify now require Android 14. So I’m forced to upgrade.
Just like others who had older iPads, then they call me asking why Chase app doesn’t work and says they need an upgrade…but old iPads won’t upgrade to the version needed.
Planned obsolescence… I hate tech nowadays. I want 90s back with dial up Internet and home built beige boxes
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.
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