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this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023
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I'm going to go with a slightly unorthodox answer. Phones.
You don't need a new phone every year. You don't need a new phone every two years. You don't even need a phone every three years. Your old Galaxy S7 or iPhone 6 still works. Don't waste your money keeping up with the latest phone. So what if it has a slightly better camera? What are you taking pictures of? What does it really do that your old phone doesn't?
Once you properly consider everything you realise that you only really need to upgrade your phone every 4-5 years minimum. Many will last much longer.
This is lacking a target. It's not an example of keeping up with the Jones, it's just an opinion. A rather wild one in which you judge other's motivations as invalid.
The whole thing about "keeping up with the Joneses" is inherently about judging others' motivations as invalid.
WIth a phone, there are various reasons to want a new phone. But you certainly don't NEED one. The year-over-year improvements have largely become trivial. Mostly, camera upgrades marketed for impressing your peers. In any case, this tendency is certainly based on norms set by the marketing, which people follow. And there is some portion of this that is just conspicuous consumption.
I can't think of anyone who upgrades their phone other than normal hardware reasons, i.e.; cracked screens, decreased battery performance, etc.
Perhaps your peer group has a higher level of vanity around their phones than normal.
Can you provide a specific of someone you know upgrading their phone because their neighbor did so?
People who complain about others upgrading their phones are actually half a version of keeping up with the joneses.
Spending mental cycles on the possessions of others is the first criteria towards keeping up with the joneses, the second half is the purchase to keep up.
I worked at AT&T and then AT&T for about 8 years. I'm not talking about the anecdotal evidence of personal friends. I'm talking about broader consumer data.
For your information, here's a statistical study: https://www.statista.com/statistics/619788/average-smartphone-life/
This indicates an average of replacing a phone every ~2.7 years. That means there's someone that replaces their phone every year for each person who keeps their phone for 4 years. And many people keep them longer than that. Obviously, I'm not saying that EVERYONE does this. But obviously this is not uncommon.
I don't typically complain about this; it happens to be the topic of conversation here. It just sounds like you're taking it personally for some reason...
Regarding the camera, I do a lot of backpacking and my phone is my only camera. Upgrading to appreciably better camera tech is something I will do. Example (Pixel 6 phone):
Out of curiosity, what makes you buy another phone instead of buying some entry level photography gear which will undoubtedly give better than a tiny phone sensor?
Is it just the whole "point-and-shoot" thing? Or is it something deeper than that?
For backpacking it's a matter of having to carry it all with you. Most people will likely bring a phone anyway for safety, so no need to carry a heavy camera on top. Also it's another thing to keep charged.
And you have to edit almost all of the pictures afterwards since neither DSLRs nor mirrorless cameras have automated post-processing that smartphones have. I'd love to upgrade my small Fujifilm X-T100 with GCam algorithms and I'd F-KING KILL for pairing it with DxO DeepPRIME denoising algorithm. Heck, these two would be fine additions to my Galaxy Note 9! No wonder @CherenkovBlue@iusearchlinux.fyi uses Pixel 6, it's perfect for a quick snap in good light.
Thanks!
Although not an extreme ultralight backpacker, I follow those principles for what I take with me and I like to move fast in the high mountains. I don't go to take photos, I go for the experience, but good photos are a plus. I can get some great photos with my phone at this point, though it certainly isn't the same as a DSLR camera. My phone has my maps for navigation and my books for reading in camp as well. It's waterproof and resilient and weighs very little. It is extremely convenient for use - put in pocket, take out when needed.
I would love to find a camera that is small, and doesn't take 20 seconds to boot...
Having never even considered owning a dedicated camera, I'm still somehow offended at the prospective a device that takes 20 seconds to boot. F**k those cameras.
A point-and-shoot film camera might be the way to go, lol.
Exactly. I use this thing all the time, every damn day.
I consider myself pretty frugal, but it’s a no brainer to budget $1/day so I can get a nice phone every few years.
I feel a similar way. My original comment was about people who get a new phone every year because they want the latest thing just because it's fancy and new, and how it's entirely possible (and much more financially logical) to use your current device until it no longer serves your needs. I however neglected to mention the people in the middle, which is where you, I, and many others currently sit. We are in the fortunate position to be able to buy a new phone every few years because we want to, not because we're under the impression that we need to.
This is arguably the best position to be in, but I may be biased :)
this kinda contradicts your original point. Regardless, phones are a weird exception because many plans subsidize new phones; those getting new phones every year may be doing so because that's part of how they can afford it
Additionally, even having a 2 year old phone can start limiting you. that's around the point in time where you'll start seeing apps no longer supporting some. functionalities on your phone. Phones also are one of the few luxuries many even have access to and they serve a practical purpose.
I'll try and clarify what I originally meant: I think buying a new phone every few years only for the sake of having a new phone is silly. In my eyes, if your current phone serves your needs then you probably should not buy a new one until that phone no longer does what you need it to do.
However, if you want to buy a new phone but do not need to, that's fine as long as you are aware of that. The difference lies in the knowledge of necessity.
If, for whatever reason, you need your phone to be up-to-date (e.g. you are a phone reviewer) then that's understandable. Otherwise, buying a new one is a bit silly.
I hope that helps?
I wait until the battery is no longer useful. Unfortunately, the iPhone makes it difficult at best to DIY a battery change, at worst expensive to have it done officially. Taking care of a battery gets it to about 4 years, and then you’re looking at Apple ending support not too long after that. Decent enough time to switch out phones.
With all my phones the battery and system just start going weird around the 3 year mark. That’s usually when I get a new one.
Yeah, my battery is down to about 4 hours of use. I wish I could just stick with this phone, but I can't keep up with its charging needs
I felt bad about splurging on a brand new phone after only 4.5 years. But it was a treat to myself.
I had a Nexus 5 that was old enough for my friend to give me for free, and I used that until the battery just wouldn't hold a charge longer than an hour idling.
The phone I replaced it with had specs that were ever so slightly lower than the Nexus 5.
It was a night and day difference when I replaced that phone with something actually good.
Do I use all the features? No. Should I have waited for a price drop? Probably. Do I regret it? Nah. Probably a once in a lifetime event for me, to allow myself to be excited for the launch of a new phone and to experience that much of a jump in quality.
I hope to get 7 years of life out of this phone even if it means getting the battery replaced (expensive...) and living without the top-of-the-line security updates (unfortunately).
Depending on the popularity of the model, you may continue to get updates through third party efforts such as LineageOS or PostmarketOS.
Good point! And that'd be more than enough to make me feel like I'm getting an "upgrade" if I'm feeling that itch after however many years
Just like a business that's finally "upgrading" to Windows 7 after being on XP for 10+ years!
I appreciate the comparison, but mobile devices go out of date far faster than desktop OS's, at least in terms of security updates.
I'm still using Windows 10 and getting security updates for a few more years.
Coincidentally, security updates for my phone and my desktop OS will run out at the same time, despite my desktop OS coming out more than half a decade earlier than my phone.
Keep a phone as long as it gets security updates. A shocking amount of personal info is on your phone and you don't want it popped
My phone has started glitching a bit over the last month or two. I JUST reached the end of the point out was paid off under my plan, which is kinda suspicious to me.
In there past, I've always bought phones outright but this particular one there was a sale where it was cheaper to finance though my provider.
End of billing would be a coincidence.
I'm in this boat.
I got an iPhone free from work. Used it until it literally fell apart. (I didn't drop it or anything. The screen just slowly came off. Weird. Not a fan). Several years.
Bought an android for cheap. Used it until it wouldn't hold a charge. Also several years.
Bought a new android. Plan to use this until it falls apart. Several years and counting.
A new phone just isn't on my radar. There's nothing I need out of a phone that this one isn't doing.
The phone market has been a lot like the PC market 20, 30 years ago.
Back then, you actually had an advantage by getting a new machine quite often, as the newer machine was so much better and faster than the model from the year before. It actually made a difference for 99% of the users: The text processing, calculating, or browsing programs ran way better and faster on the current model than on the one or two year older one.
Nowadays, any off-the-shelf PC fulfills the needs of 95% of the users. It runs Windows/Word/Excel (or whatever else they use) fast enough to not be an issue. The only people who still need the bleeding edge stuff are some high-end uses e.g. in engineering, and gamers.
Same with cell phones. Ten years ago, the annual new model actually provided a big leap of abilities and comfort. Nowadays, I'm replacing my 5+ year old model just because the battery is getting close to the end of it's usability.
I suppose it’s just a byproduct of the cellphone boom and how fast things changed. Almost feels locked in by default to upgrade if you started out with a brick phone, flip, camera, then finally smart, and smart phones advanced pretty well for a while, but feels like they’re all the same now, incremental upgrades. But here I’m am still stuck on this ride.
I hear that.
Send from my Android Pixel 12 (not yet released to the public, it's that advanced).
Yes, but it depends.
We had S8s that were getting noticably slow. We upgraded to S21s when those came out and those are significantly faster and haven't slowed down.
We use our phones a lot, so significant slow down is noticable and annoying. But our phones are fine right now, so no reason to upgrade.
at the rate my $50 flippers fall apart, i need a new one every couple years or sooner. but i'm certainly not keeping up with anyone wrt my phone... as it's just a phone, not a pocket pc.
I was more referring to people who buy a new iPhone every year. If your phone does what you need it to do and you replace it when it no longer does that, I think that's the perfect way :)