Asklemmy

I'll ride this pixel til it dies.

I haven’t gotten a new phone in the last 3 years and I don’t think that I will get one before the iPhone 15 comes out. I’m well satisfied with my iPhone 13 mini.

The fact that most newly released phones don’t go that small annoys me so I’ll keep it until I find something worth while or of similar size.

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!

I don't. I usually buy something good (hardware wise) and use it until it dies. Repeat the process.

I have a Pixel 2 I picked up in 2018, a few months after they were released (my previous Nexus 5x got the bootloops).

I held off upgrading due to the free original quality Google photos. When that ran out, I did follow new releases, and found the features appealing, but then I'd see the ever inflating prices and couldn't justify spending so much to replace a device that still works fine.

And it does still work. Granted, it's had a new battery and a couple of charging ports (I've gotten a lot bolder with cleaning the ports now, don't expect it to need a 4th any time soon). I'm fortunate to be capable of making those repairs myself, I'd have probably given in and bought an A model otherwise. For now though, I just have to say, maybe next year.

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.

I like having high-end cameras and screens on my phones.

I keep my phones in excellent condition and sell them whenever I upgrade, which doesn’t make it a crazy expensive process.

I don't understand it either. The only reason I upgraded from my Galaxy S10 was because the USB port no longer worked. I could still charge it via wireless charging, but it was annoying not being able to plug it into my car to use Google Maps. If the USB port didn't break, I'd probably still be using the old S10.

I refuse to upgrade past a pixel 4a, because as far as I'm concerned it has everything I need. When my last one broke I just brought another pixel 4a, why? Because they cost like 150 quid second hand on Amazon.

When I have shown the phone to friends and such, I get the same reaction to the price since it looks like a really good phone. And cost significantly less.

No intention of flipping back ever again

I follow my life rule of changing phone every 5 years. But my phone broke and become unusable after 4 years. Was xiaomi user for yrs, i bought s23 ultra now as xiaomi prices became expansive. Buy good phone mainly for the picture quality.

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.

I've felt this way for a long time. After paying off an expensive contract for a S7 edge, I swore to never pay more than £100 for a phone. My S7 lasted 5 years before the battery gave out and the phone started to struggle.

I replaced it with a Redmi not 9 and after a year and a half i was having problems running my most used apps, bit to mention the ammount of bloatware was shocking.

I have just bought a refurbished Pixel 6 for £250 and the difference is in quality and performance is staggering! I have never been happier with a phone.

So my advice would be avoid the cheap brands and buy something future proof, but i totally agree there is no need to get a kew phone every year.

My current phone is 6. I have changed battery once. The only problem is internal memory.

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 phone—that's what my desktop and server are for. My current phone I bought last year will last probably for 5 more years.

For me it's either when I find the included RAM is too small (as apps grow over time) or when the flash memory degrades to a noticeable degree, or when the camera loading takes too long.

The camera technology advances significantly every year, so it really matters if you’re a photographer.

Beware of your phone going out of support and losing security updates. Android manufacturers tend to drop devices after 2-4 years, Apple after 4-5.

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

You do it to give Samsung or Motorola or Google or apple or Amazon your money every year, obviously

Only reason I see is because of phones breaking. My current Mi 10T Lite was great for the first two years, then it started getting annoying. I can no longer use Wallpaper Engine because of a stupid system update, notifications started getting stuck, sometimes it has other minor annoyances. The hardware is still fine, there's no reason this phone shouldn't work, but it doesn't. Xiaomi clearly wants me to go buy another phone.

So I did. Just not from them. My Fairphone should be arriving any day now. My friend already got hers, and she got me super excited for it.

Each year new products & models are launching, so that those in need of it can aquire them. These companies are delivering OS updates for these smartphones so they last longer as realistically possible.

If when yours is broken or far too old, then you should consider aquiring this year's model. So that you can use something that is compatible with studies, work, activities etc.

Obviously each individual/ family/ organization does their own analysis regarding if there is a need or desire to aquire said products. Also what for.

There's a lot of reasons. Single people can spend a lot on tech without thinking. People have lot of money. People don't like their current phone. I say let them spend and keep the companies in business. If all of us stopped buying phones every year and only bought once in 4-5 years, the companies producing phones will have to shut down sooner or later and we'd have just one or two left. I only upgraded recently after 6 years because the phone OS was too old and the cpu was like snail.

I have a Note 10+

With the way it's measuring up today for performance and battery life, if it were going to keep getting OS updates and security updates it'd keep being a great phone for another couple of years yet.

...And compared to some I know, I'm updating frequently.

I really do wish they'd squeeze another 1-2 OS updates into it's life-span. But at this rate I'll still be replacing it with whatever its up-to-date peer is in another year or so...

...and re-purposing this one - it's still awesome (awesomer if it allowed root without losing updates and pay-services)