this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2023
450 points (92.3% liked)

Asklemmy

43963 readers
1920 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

(page 5) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] zikk_transport2@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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!

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] madis@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I previously thought it would be a way to upgrade phones faster without losing (much) money.

Say, you have a 800$ phone and you want a new 800$ phone. Most people would just buy a new one for 800$ (outright or installment, doesn't matter) after 2-3 years. My idea was to buy a new phone every year, sell the older one for half the price and voila - you paid the same amount but got two phone upgrades.

The problem with that logic is that reselling takes time, energy and luck to get the price you want, plus it is possible to buy new phones for cheaper by just waiting anyway.

[–] Redknots@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

For me, I kept my last phone for 3 years and upgraded because I didn't have enough storage. New phone is a little nicer, has a few new features, but I may well keep it for a few years again.

[–] Hjulkula@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I'm asking myself the same thing. I grabbed myself the the cheapest phone available at my local electronics store after I dropped my old one in the river 2-3 years ago. I think I payed around 160€ or something and I see no reason to get something new

[–] LeafTheTreesAlone@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

I only upgrade my phone when it starts to lag and slow down. My last phone I replaced the battery when the life started dropping.

[–] Shurimal@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

I upgrade when the opsys gets hopelessly outdated (as in apps no longer supporting it) or the device physically breaks. My last phone (Huawei Ascend P7) lasted for 7 years, but the Android 4.4 got just a bit too old, plus I cracked the screen a month after removing the battered to hell glass screen protector...

I don't care much about the phone not getting OS updates since I don't keep anything important on a phone in the first place and I don't care much about CPU/GPU performance since I don't run intensive apps on my phoneβ€”that's what my desktop and server are for. My current phone I bought last year will last probably for 5 more years.

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 2 points 1 year ago

I try to milk my phones as long as possible. But that’s mostly because I’m lazy and moving all the 2FA and getting things set up how I like and whatnot is a ball ache.

[–] Geth@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

I changed from a OnePlus 6t to a Samsung S23+ after about 4 years of using the old one and at least for me the difference is huge. Both are flagships in their own time. The oneplus was starting to feel a bit laggy here and there, but I never expected the S23+ to be all around so snappy in comparison. Camera quality is leagues ahead. The battery life is way better. The fingerprint sensor was never good on the oneplus, but it's amazing on the Samsung. There are many other features I like or find useful like the wireless charging or the water resistance. The new phone is an all around better package for me and a surprisingly decent upgrade.

You definitely don't need to upgrade every 2 years and it probably matters what you expect out of a phone and how patient you are with the issues, but I think new phones do still offer compelling reasons to upgrade, just not as often as in the past.

[–] drekly@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] Kyoyeou@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

That's a very wholesome story

[–] stilgar@infosec.pub 2 points 1 year ago

I'm tempted to upgrade for:

  • Wireless charging
  • 5G

But I'm not that tempted so I haven't done it, still very happy with my Oneplus 7T from 2020.

[–] ice1011@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

I finally had to upgrade after 5.5 years because software support was lagging for the version of Android I was on.

[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just enjoy new tech and trying new things in that arena. So new phones before I technically need to is one of the things I spend disposable income on when something in that arena catches my interest.

Does have a nice side effect of constantly reenforcing the use of platform agnostic services and retaining ultimate control of my data if it is something I care about, since it really allows me to just move the sim to a new phone and be up and running in a hour or less with more or less any Apple or Android phone.

load more comments (1 replies)

I buy a new phone anytime a new innovation comes out. I ordered the Google pixel on day 1 and am loving it.

[–] nawordar@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

My Galaxy S8 had a lot of annoying problems both on stock ROM and Lineage OS. After three years I switched to Zenfone 8 and so far I am satisfied. The battery life is crap though, especially after updating to Android 13. I'm considering a downgrade if it's even possible

load more comments
view more: β€Ή prev next β€Ί