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> The amortized cost for me is much less than any alternative Android. I think that with the trade-in program, I've spent a similar amount between 2016 and now
by clnq 4y ago
> The amortized cost for me is much less than any alternative Android.
I think that with the trade-in program, I've spent a similar amount between 2016 and now upgrading to flagship OnePlus phones every year-ish. The software updates have been good. For example, OnePlus 8 series were the first non-Google smartphones to receive Android 13. They were about 2 years old at the time.
The bathtub curve of reliability applies to smartphones as it does to most electronics. The "infant mortality" failures can be covered by manufacturer warranty pretty well. But the "wear out" failures go up a lot in electronics after the first few years in my experience (with both Apple and other brands). In case of Apple, battery degradation and a bunch of build quality "-gates" come to mind.
So there is value in upgrading one's smartphone every year or two, ecology aside. I could do that with OnePlus phones but it might have been much too expensive for me to do it with iPhones.
- lotsofpulp 4y agoUpgrading every year is all cost to me. It has been many years since iPhones are sufficiently good, that I do not care enough about the marginal increases in speed/battery/screen/camera. If I have to spend any effort and time erasing my old phone and restoring a new one, and then doing the work to trade it in, is cost I would rather not incur. I am also not aware of any battery-gate degradation issues. Around a thousand charge cycles, every 3 years maybe, I pay to get the battery replaced at Apple or Best Buy.
- ryandrake 4y agoMy daily driver is an iPhone 7 from seven years ago that still does absolutely everything I need a smartphone to do. I suspect the hardware will long outlive security updates, sadly. Like my O.G. iPad 1 which I still use. It's a shame that smartphone manufacturers' software support timelines produce so much working e-waste. Even Apple, who have among the best support lifetimes: they're still too short, and the hardware long outlasts the software. Sad.
- acdha 4y ago> In case of Apple, battery degradation and a bunch of build quality "-gates" come to mind. It’s important to remember that those were largely media creations, not something which affected a large number people or were problems specific to iPhones. There were so many angry tirades about throttling on degraded batteries which never mentioned that everyone does it because the alternative is the device suddenly shutting off.