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.
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.
The S10e does have good custom ROM support so perhaps that’s how they’re getting Android updates.
Snapdragon :(
I’m still rocking a Galaxy S9+ with no intent of upgrading. I don’t even know what phone I would go with if I did need another.
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 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.
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.
I have a Redmi Note 8, i think. It’s att least 5 years old, maybe 6. I have no reason to change it.
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.
It’s all about the idea. Even if the guy is not following through with his plan, a couple of the viewers might do so, marking it a success.
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’m rocking pixel 3.
and then they break it and decide the cost of a repair isn’t worth it
Yep, that was me with my previous phone, which I did indeed have for over 5 years.
But there’s another major factor to it.
I use Android phones, which get official software updates for only a couple years (3 years for the most part). This includes security updates.
So when I got my current one it was one of only two I even considered, because only those two manufacturers promised 5 years of (security) updates at the time.
It has gotten better though, but except for Fairphone they’re still all very hard or impossible to repair.
I’ve still got my pixel 4a and it works fine. I won’t change it until it breaks.
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’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.
Why I don’t watch YouTube videos -
It’s 8 minutes long and contains less than a minute’s worth of information, and is a complete waste of time
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.
I wonder if this was Google’s plan all along …
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
I totally agree with you, I’d much rather read some bullet points then sit through a video.
I think YouTube automatically generates transcripts already, and GPT can summarise text easily.
I’d like replaceable batteries to come back.
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.
Getting genuine or similar peforming replacement batteries for cheap is sort of a gamble.
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).
Just buy batteries from aliexpress, ebay…
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.
So say we all.
Been waiting to use that ;-)
All new phones are too fucking big.
This. Had to replace my trusted s10e. Picked the smallest I could get, which was an s23. It’s too big.
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.
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Pixel 4a checking in. 🙂
My current phone, actually. I’ve been looking for newer at the same size or less, and it’s pissing me off.
Do you really need a YouTube video for that?
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’.
Buying a new replacement totally is upgrading though.
That’s why it’s so rare to find phones with easily changeable batteries as most phones are like new if you just replace that.
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 agree with your terminology - updating is for often small incremental software patches.
Upgrade would be a complete program overhaul, or more commonly in my use of it, a change to a newer, better physical product.
You upgrade your phone when you can no longer use the previous one. What other reason would there be? They’re all the same anyway.
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.
Difference between updating and upgrading
I’m still on 13 just because I didn’t see any point to upgrade.
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.
I went from an OPPO find 5, to oneplus 1, then OnePlus 5, and now pixel7a. The OnePlus 1 was probably the only one I was impressed by and the others were just replacements. I don’t plan on changing until Linux phones are less of a pain in the anoos or if the 7a gets totalled. I’m the family tech guy for a lot of people that always upgrade to the latest phone and nothing worthwhile ever happens in a decade of phones any more. If anything they get worse with more planned obsolescence and proprietary bullshit.
I finally upgraded my phone after 7 years. I had trouble picking out a phone that didn’t remove everything… no headphone jack, no sd card slot and we’re supposed to call that an upgrade? (What I got still has those thankfully)
But it’s got lidar so you can jack off hands-free by gesturing a jerking motion!
Same feeling. They are expensive and miss stuff I currently have or they are too big
I’m using an almost four year old iPhone 12 mini, with absolutely no desire to upgrade. I plan to use this phone until it’s a brick.
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
I’ve been using a 12 Pro and if it wasn’t for the version number in the name I wouldn’t even be aware of its age. They are all so fast these days the battery dies long before it becomes too slow to use. If it wasn’t for CarPlay and iMessage I’d absolutely use a flip phone with Android Go or something.
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.
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.
Yea, don’t waste time with MTP. It’s a hack to enable some access. It’s always been unstable.
Use some kind of network sync tool instead. Syncthing, Resilio Sync, Foldersync, etc.
Using the cable it could be much faster though. If it worked, that is.
Most entry level and midrange phones are still USB 2.0, even if they use USB-C physical port. USB 2.0 is 480 Mbit/s max, even old Wi-Fi 5 allows 1 Gbit/s speeds or even more. At this point the limit will be the writing speed of eMMC/SD card so even USB 3.0 becomes superfluous. After setting up my NAS, Jellyfin, Navidrome, Syncthing and Tailscale I haven’t ever connected my phone to a PC for file transfer—photos get synced automatically, music/videos get streamed and if I need to move files manually I can just do it from/to the SMB share over the network.
Let me give you a simpler answer than watching an 8 minute video - Money
I upgrade when I kill my phone. There’s just no other reason to do it otherwise
Same. However I do work manual labor, so nothing too fancy lasts long.
Since 2010, I’ve only gone through 4 phones. New phones seem to focus on better cameras which I don’t use much.
Same here. Whatever I have now is more than good enough. What I had before was good enough too
I upgrade less than I used to, and I only do mid-range devices now, like the Pixel A series or Motorola G series. That kind of bracket. I’m just going to install Lineage OS on it anyway and it works fine so why pay more when I don’t need that.
You can just buy a used phone too. An older pro is going to be better than the new A. Same price too.
But worse battery life.
I run GrapheneOS.
I told myself that my Pixel 8 pro will be enough for a bunch of years. That is, until I went on a trip with it. Now I feel like my Pixel 7 was better than the P8P is, with just as good of a camera with better battery life.
I’m glad I kept the p7 as a burner, because I may just make it my prime phone. I only upgraded on the prospect of a long lasting phone and received the p7 for free…
