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Its surprising how good a used, $50 phone is today. You can get something on par with a Note 3 or Note 4 from LG and get two solid years of use out of it, perha
by StudentStuff 9y ago
Its surprising how good a used, $50 phone is today. You can get something on par with a Note 3 or Note 4 from LG and get two solid years of use out of it, perhaps more with ROMs.
This is part of why I stopped buying the latest flagship, just didn't make sense for me to worry so much when I could avoid that entirely, and get 98% of the same performance and features.
- disiplus 9y agoim still rocking my nexus6 because i dont see a reason to upgrade. before that i was rocking note line from samsung. the only thing that im missing in comparasion with current phones is camera.
- saagarjha 9y agoNexus 6 isn’t even 3 years old. Many people keep phones that long.
- disiplus 9y agothat was not the point, the point was that the phones crossed some threshold in performance/features where cheap phones are good enough or flagships from 3 years ago, that you do not get that much more from current flagship vs older ones/cheap phone in comparison to some years ago
- lostmsu 9y agoThere's still no September update, while other phones got it last week. https://developers.google.com/android/ota#shamu https://developers.google.com/android/ota#shamu
- saagarjha 9y ago> 98% of the same performance and features You’re talking about phones with hardware from half a decade ago. How exactly are you getting the same performance and features, let alone even support or updates from manufacturers?
- StudentStuff 9y agoIn what world is a chip from 2014 a half decade old? Most of the phones in that price bracket will be using a Snapdragon 410 or similar.
- saagarjha 9y agoHmm…it looks like the Note 3 is actually only 4 years old.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jcelerier 9y agoGot a five years old Jolla which still receives updates every other month
- saagarjha 9y agoMy criticism was mainly aimed at Android, which has a tendency to drop support for devices within 1-2 years.
- em3rgent0rdr 9y agowhich is why should use Lineage OS.
- deleted 9y ago
- Vinnl 9y agoHow's the battery on those used phones? That feels like the main blocker for me.
- problems 9y agoNew battery is about $10, not exactly a blocker, but they do increase the price.
- Vinnl 9y agoHmm OK, so I guess you just make sure you buy a phone with an easily replaceable battery then? Or is it that cheap when you have it done too?
- kristopolous 9y agoYou don't even need that. Phones like the LG Fortune, which I own and works totally fine, can be bought for $25 new and out the door, no contract, at mainstream retailers like Best Buy. I also have a moto e4 which I'm using to type this. I think it cost me about $65. (I also have a variety of iDevices and flagship phones for testing stuff I write) We are in the age of adequate, super cheap phones that aren't awful. I have the option of, but choose not to place my sim card in one of more expensive and flashy devices I own because I'd rather have the thing I carry with me be a "worthless commodity" that could get lost without my caring at all. Last time my phone broke I just swapped the sim card that day, not caring in the slightest. This is a liberating experience. You can also do this with prescription glasses - you can pay under $7 a pair online. Anti-scratch, investment preserving upgrades and the feeling of preciousness are all gone. Not having to emotionally invest in things is wonderful.
- Vinnl 9y agoTrue, but avoiding the production of new phones is one of the draws for me, and batteries that quickly run out one of the hurdles :)
- problems 9y ago
- criddell 9y agoThere's no way I'd buy a used Android phone, unless it was from Google and was less than two years old. Android phone makers are terrible about security updates.
- pawadu 9y agoActually things have improved considerably this year. You may still not have the latest OS version, but the security patches are arriving every 1-2 months. Oreo is supposed to improve things even further, but for know its just a theory.