Asklemmy

The convenience of not replacing the battery.

I'm in a good financial position and swapping the battery isn't rocket surgery, but it's a bit of a risk I'm not willing to take. Plus Pixel phones go on a decently deep discount in September before the next model is released.

And I wait until the battery is bloated so it's kinda a safety thing too.

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 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.

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 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. I usually buy something good (hardware wise) and use it until it dies. Repeat the process.

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.

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 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.

Lack of memory card slot is a big deal for me. I get the cloud usage and all, but what about having a local copy? Space fills up really fast with a few videos and photos. I don't want to have to manage my storage painfully every month or so.

Also I prefer compact phones which are basically non-existent these days.

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

I've been getting a new phone every 4 years, but it isn't hard to answer your question tbh. New products feel amazing. Companies invest millions if not billions of dollars in marketing to make you crave the newest device, even if yours is quite decent. I think that's also the reason Apple pays so much attention to the packaging and their setup wizards so that getting a new product is an almost magical experience you want to relive. Ask any person with a shopping addiction, they'll explain to you the rush of a new product like no one else.

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.

I use my phones until the battery life is too degraded to be practical and the phone is too damaged to have the batt6replaced. My Samsung A71 is about 3 years old. Some months ago I noticed the battery was pillowing. Since it was still holding charge for more than a day, the guy at a repair shop (where I took it to get a new battery) just punched a pinprick to deflate it, and it's still going strong.