A new survey from mobile operator Vodafone UK has claimed that people are now keeping their mobile devices for longer, with the majority upgrading every 4 years
I just don’t see the point of upgrading every two years, and even if I did I’m buying used at this point.
I’m on iPhone and despite all the fanatics creaming their pants over each release, very little actually seems to change.
I know a guy with a 6 year old phone, and when he listed off the features it made me realise how little things have actually changed since it was released.
Yeah, marginal camera improvements are kinda meh to me. Has there really been anything that significant since Face ID?
5G is the only thing that springs to mind for me, but I’ve honestly never felt that 4G held me back on a phone considering it works perfectly for playing videos…
Despite what they’d say on a poll, if you actually forced people to buy a new phone if they answered yes then a majority would stick with what they’ve got.
Absolutely not. I don’t have a laptop, have a family group that have between us, iPhone X, XS, 11 and an old 7max. All chargers I have owned for the last 10 years are USB A at the charger. So the cable will be USB A to lightning for all the phones and to something else, like micro usb for other devices like a rechargeable bike light. USB C is just to cause e-waste and of no practical use.
Got three macs and a pc, playstation and my work laptop is the only thing that has usb-c on it. But it’s off no interest when not working, I just can’t think why usb-c is so important to some people. It seems like if you had been upgrading constantly on android phones, there’s the driver.
The only person I work with that keeps banging on about usb-c is the Android phone guy.
Emergency satellite SOS was a massive selling point for upgrading to the iPhone 14 to a lot of people. To your point though, my 2015 iPad is just now being dropped from future updates.
Meanwhile in Canada it’s being recommended to disable emergency SOS on both iPhones and Androids because of how many false 911 calls they end up placing, causing first responders to waste time on non-emergencies.
Recently , 5G in the 12, 144hz in the 13 pro , satellite and crash detection in the 14 , this year usc-c. Upgrading that often is an enthusiast thing really (or marketing).
Similar with android. I had a pixel 5 and loved it, the pixel 6 pro came out and I was dragged in (higher res screen, 120hz etc etc). Then the pixel 7 pro came out and I bought that too (mainly for signal improvements).
Looking back, my pixel 5 did/does everything these do. I’ve decided my next upgrades will be whenever the below happens:
Phone broken
No more updates
Feature I need, and I mean need (it would be hard for a phone to come out to do this)
I don’t need some random AI features/camera improvments. 99% of my phone use is podcasts, browsing the internet and any phone from the last 5 years will do that nicely still.
Again I was sucked in here… I bought WF1000XM3, then XM4. Since having a kid, we’ve had to watch spending a bit more and i’ve really started to embrace repairability and longevity. Recently picked up a Framework laptop that I plan on keeping for a long time.
It had a big bug where it would go to sleep and never wake up, but I finally found a firmware upgrade and it’s been perfect since, maybe a bit on the power hungry side while asleep.
You might want to consider a used thinkpad, they last literally forever and you can get a decent one for $500 or so.
Just my thought, the fw is great, tempted to upgrade the mobo at some point, or get the 16, but it’s not cheap, it’s more about being able to upgrade and the flexible i/o, which is actually cool.
I just don’t see the point of upgrading every two years, and even if I did I’m buying used at this point.
I’m on iPhone and despite all the fanatics creaming their pants over each release, very little actually seems to change.
I know a guy with a 6 year old phone, and when he listed off the features it made me realise how little things have actually changed since it was released.
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Yeah, marginal camera improvements are kinda meh to me. Has there really been anything that significant since Face ID?
5G is the only thing that springs to mind for me, but I’ve honestly never felt that 4G held me back on a phone considering it works perfectly for playing videos…
Next iPhone gets usb c.
That’s great, but considering everyone’s already got the cables they need, for most people it’s not really a feature to upgrade for.
Most people have 1 cable they need for their phone and a lot of usb c. Upgrading means no more going to find that 1 unique charger.
Yeah, it’s nice, I just don’t think that feature is worth upgrading for most people.
Face ID and Apple Pay were jumps forward in the way that people use their phones and were quite exciting, introducing USB C is just backtracking.
You are the minority then. If you do a poll on what would make people buy a new iPhone it will be the usb c connection.
Despite what they’d say on a poll, if you actually forced people to buy a new phone if they answered yes then a majority would stick with what they’ve got.
Buying a handful of spare chargers is much cheaper than buying a new phone.
Absolutely not. I don’t have a laptop, have a family group that have between us, iPhone X, XS, 11 and an old 7max. All chargers I have owned for the last 10 years are USB A at the charger. So the cable will be USB A to lightning for all the phones and to something else, like micro usb for other devices like a rechargeable bike light. USB C is just to cause e-waste and of no practical use.
You don’t have a laptop? I think you are the minority then
Got three macs and a pc, playstation and my work laptop is the only thing that has usb-c on it. But it’s off no interest when not working, I just can’t think why usb-c is so important to some people. It seems like if you had been upgrading constantly on android phones, there’s the driver. The only person I work with that keeps banging on about usb-c is the Android phone guy.
Emergency satellite SOS was a massive selling point for upgrading to the iPhone 14 to a lot of people. To your point though, my 2015 iPad is just now being dropped from future updates.
Meanwhile in Canada it’s being recommended to disable emergency SOS on both iPhones and Androids because of how many false 911 calls they end up placing, causing first responders to waste time on non-emergencies.
Recently , 5G in the 12, 144hz in the 13 pro , satellite and crash detection in the 14 , this year usc-c. Upgrading that often is an enthusiast thing really (or marketing).
Similar with android. I had a pixel 5 and loved it, the pixel 6 pro came out and I was dragged in (higher res screen, 120hz etc etc). Then the pixel 7 pro came out and I bought that too (mainly for signal improvements).
Looking back, my pixel 5 did/does everything these do. I’ve decided my next upgrades will be whenever the below happens:
I don’t need some random AI features/camera improvments. 99% of my phone use is podcasts, browsing the internet and any phone from the last 5 years will do that nicely still.
They need to give us back the headphone jack, that’s a feature worth getting a new phone for, but then again we can just use an old phone instead.
Again I was sucked in here… I bought WF1000XM3, then XM4. Since having a kid, we’ve had to watch spending a bit more and i’ve really started to embrace repairability and longevity. Recently picked up a Framework laptop that I plan on keeping for a long time.
Have a framework, probably the 1st gen.
It had a big bug where it would go to sleep and never wake up, but I finally found a firmware upgrade and it’s been perfect since, maybe a bit on the power hungry side while asleep.
You might want to consider a used thinkpad, they last literally forever and you can get a decent one for $500 or so.
Just my thought, the fw is great, tempted to upgrade the mobo at some point, or get the 16, but it’s not cheap, it’s more about being able to upgrade and the flexible i/o, which is actually cool.
Reading this on iPhone X
I have an iPhone 8 and see no reason to update in the near future.