Android

This. Had to replace my trusted s10e. Picked the smallest I could get, which was an s23. It's too big.

Pixel 4a checking in. 🙂

I have a Redmi Note 8, i think. It's att least 5 years old, maybe 6. I have no reason to change it.

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..."

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 don't see any reason to upgrade my S10

I feel it's time to upgrade when the latest and greatest just released again.

/s

Same. However I do work manual labor, so nothing too fancy lasts long.

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.

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.

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...

Every 2.5 years for me. I usually get two generations back. My "newest phone" is a Pixel 6 from Oct 2021.

Honestly it feels like a subscription service these days.