7 ms·

I don't know what Pixel replacement batteries cost, but Apple typically charges a flat $89 to replace an out of warranty battery, less than 10% of the cost of a

I don't know what Pixel replacement batteries cost, but Apple typically charges a flat $89 to replace an out of warranty battery, less than 10% of the cost of a new phone, which is a totally reasonable proposition if you think you can get at least another year out of your phone. Unless Pixels are dramatically more expensive, then this doesn't check out at all.

KolmogorovComp 3y ago
I think the point of the OP is that after ~5 years (when you have to change your battery), your iPhone is not worth $890 dollars anymore, but more like $200-$300, out of which $89 is a significant portion.
- _aavaa_ 3y ago
  Except this analysis is flawed since you're not going to find a new equivalent replacement for 200-300$
  - argsnd 3y ago
    After 5 years you might...
    - _aavaa_ 3y ago
      Apple does not sell a 200$ phone. And 200$ android phones do not have the build quality of an 800$ one, even if it's 5 years old.
      - turtlebits 3y ago
        You can find carrier locked iPhone SE's for $150, you can get a free iPhone with a postpaid contract as well.
    - BossingAround 3y ago
      A 2nd hand one, that'll suffer the same battery issues at best
  - JohnBooty 3y ago
    Right, but you could sell (or more realistically, trade in) your phone for perhaps $200-300.
    - _aavaa_ 3y ago
      I don't know if you've ever tried trading in an old phone, but nobody is giving you 200$ for a 5 year old phone. But say they do. You now need to find a 289-389$ phone (which will cost you 89$ out of pocket) that gives you the same experience.
  - notatoad 3y ago
    if by "equivalent" you mean a new modern flagship phone, then no, you won't find one. but a $200 new phone this year is at least the equivalent of a pixel phone from five years ago. nobody's going to say that, for example, this isn't at least as good as a pixel 3: https://www.amazon.ca/OnePlus-Android-Display-Unlocked-Charging/dp/B0B14LBNL6/ref=sr_1_6?crid=3KEC1ILN16FPZ&keywords=android+phone https://www.amazon.ca/OnePlus-Android-Display-Unlocked-Charg...
    - HJain13 3y ago
      >nobody's going to say that, for example, this isn't at least as good as a pixel 3: https://www.amazon.ca/OnePlus-Android-Display-Unlocked-Charg https://www.amazon.ca/OnePlus-Android-Display-Unlocked-Charg... In terms of Camera, Haptics, Construction material it probably isn't
    - kelnos 3y ago
      And the (Android) phone from five years ago won't be getting OS or security updates. Granted, your current phone that needs the new battery probably isn't getting them either. In which case, why not just pay $80 to get the battery replaced in your current phone?
- phaer 3y ago
  Not sure why you would consider the suspected re-sale value of the phone here? From a users perspective the question would seem to be whether they want to spend $89 for a battery or $890 (maybe minus that re-sale value of 200-300, so still around $600) on a new phone.
  - fatfingerd 3y ago
    > whether they want to spend $89 for a battery or $890 No, they can pay less than $120 on a new phone in the budget tier which will be at least comparable in capabilities to a 5 year old phone in any tier and also have about 2 years of life.
    - GeekyBear 3y ago
      If they are price sensitive, they would have gone for something like the $399 2016 iPhone SE, which is currently in it's seventh year of support, having gotten another security update last month. That works out to around fifty bucks per supported year, and you aren't creating a mountain of e-waste by throwing away a perfectly good phone every other year.
      - fatfingerd 3y ago
        Buying something like the Samsung A14 every 4 years would cost about the same and seems a lot more realistic than aspirational. I think its great that phones are being supported for 7 years but in a way it is a marketing chip based on consumer's using unrealistic linear depreciation. Some consumers can pass down, repurpose, or only need very basic things, but most consumers need much of the relative performance they first bought, break screens, can't handle embedded battery replacement logistics, etc, so most probably have replaced something like the iPhone SE before 4 years is up and are paying more than they would have expected.
        GeekyBear 3y ago
        > most consumers need much of the relative performance The single core performance of the current Samsung A14 is about a third of the currently sold iPhone SE. If you're going to keep the same device many years, don't buy something with slow performance right out of the gate.
- sho_hn 3y ago
  Swapping the battery means you save the carbon footprint of manufacturing the non-battery parts, which have a pretty high cost to all of us in aggregate that should somehow factor into the "is it worth to keep it going" equation. I wonder how we can make that happen. My current phone is an S21 that's facing a plethora of failures (screen damage, flaky USB-C connector, weak battery, back cover delaminating) that are all individually fixable, but altogether I also find it hard to resist the pull of getting a new phone at that stage when I add up the numbers. But I feel increasingly really bad about not trying harder to go repair-first. Also because there's otherwise virtually no tech/feature reason to "upgrade" from something as recent as an S21 these days.
- HumblyTossed 3y ago
  So? They're not investments. They're simply devices. But, let's go with this. After ~5 years, phones will sell for $990 (up from 5 years ago @ $890). 990 - 250 (splitting the difference) is what ... 740? That's a LOT more than $89 (or even 99 in 5 years). If my phone is still up to date and performant enough for my tasks, I would be stupid not to pay 99 vs 740.
- SirMaster 3y ago
  He said cost of a new phone though. If we assume the user wants to buy a new phone in the same tier as the one they have now.
- kelnos 3y ago
  If so, that's a pretty disingenuous way to look at it. If I'm going to be comparing the cost of a battery replacement with an alternative, that alternative is going to be "buying a new phone". The depreciated value of my current phone is irrelevant.
xslvrxslwt 3y ago
Reasonable? $89? You don't realize you're in 1% of the world 's richest there in the US right? I replaced my 5000mAh battery myself for $12. beat that big corpo licker.
- geodel 3y ago
  LOL, but all these non-richest people must buy an iPhone and replace it 89 dollars?
- kelnos 3y ago
  We're specifically talking about the kinds of people who will spend $700+ on a new phone. Those people can surely afford $89 to replace the battery a couple years down the line.
ajonit 3y ago
Would love to see what others have to say on this but I suspect Apple replacement batteries are inferior compared to the one that comes with the new phone. 4 years of usage and battery max capacity was around 76%. I replaced my iPhone X battery last year. The new one I got is at 86% already and it is not even 12 months. (No usage pattern change. I replaced it from an Apple Store.)
- kelnos 3y ago
  I wonder if that can be accounted for by the fact that the software of today is more taxing than it was four years ago. You're probably using more battery charge every day today than you were four years ago to do the same things. That increases wear on the battery and will reduce its lifetime.

KolmogorovComp 3y ago

I think the point of the OP is that after ~5 years (when you have to change your battery), your iPhone is not worth $890 dollars anymore, but more like $200-$300, out of which $89 is a significant portion.

_aavaa_ 3y ago
Except this analysis is flawed since you're not going to find a new equivalent replacement for 200-300$
- argsnd 3y ago
  After 5 years you might...
  - _aavaa_ 3y ago
    Apple does not sell a 200$ phone. And 200$ android phones do not have the build quality of an 800$ one, even if it's 5 years old.
    - turtlebits 3y ago
      You can find carrier locked iPhone SE's for $150, you can get a free iPhone with a postpaid contract as well.
  - BossingAround 3y ago
    A 2nd hand one, that'll suffer the same battery issues at best
- JohnBooty 3y ago
  Right, but you could sell (or more realistically, trade in) your phone for perhaps $200-300.
  - _aavaa_ 3y ago
    I don't know if you've ever tried trading in an old phone, but nobody is giving you 200$ for a 5 year old phone. But say they do. You now need to find a 289-389$ phone (which will cost you 89$ out of pocket) that gives you the same experience.
- notatoad 3y ago
  if by "equivalent" you mean a new modern flagship phone, then no, you won't find one. but a $200 new phone this year is at least the equivalent of a pixel phone from five years ago. nobody's going to say that, for example, this isn't at least as good as a pixel 3: https://www.amazon.ca/OnePlus-Android-Display-Unlocked-Charging/dp/B0B14LBNL6/ref=sr_1_6?crid=3KEC1ILN16FPZ&keywords=android+phone https://www.amazon.ca/OnePlus-Android-Display-Unlocked-Charg...
  - HJain13 3y ago
    >nobody's going to say that, for example, this isn't at least as good as a pixel 3: https://www.amazon.ca/OnePlus-Android-Display-Unlocked-Charg https://www.amazon.ca/OnePlus-Android-Display-Unlocked-Charg... In terms of Camera, Haptics, Construction material it probably isn't
  - kelnos 3y ago
    And the (Android) phone from five years ago won't be getting OS or security updates. Granted, your current phone that needs the new battery probably isn't getting them either. In which case, why not just pay $80 to get the battery replaced in your current phone?
phaer 3y ago
Not sure why you would consider the suspected re-sale value of the phone here? From a users perspective the question would seem to be whether they want to spend $89 for a battery or $890 (maybe minus that re-sale value of 200-300, so still around $600) on a new phone.
- fatfingerd 3y ago
  > whether they want to spend $89 for a battery or $890 No, they can pay less than $120 on a new phone in the budget tier which will be at least comparable in capabilities to a 5 year old phone in any tier and also have about 2 years of life.
  - GeekyBear 3y ago
    If they are price sensitive, they would have gone for something like the $399 2016 iPhone SE, which is currently in it's seventh year of support, having gotten another security update last month. That works out to around fifty bucks per supported year, and you aren't creating a mountain of e-waste by throwing away a perfectly good phone every other year.
    - fatfingerd 3y ago
      Buying something like the Samsung A14 every 4 years would cost about the same and seems a lot more realistic than aspirational. I think its great that phones are being supported for 7 years but in a way it is a marketing chip based on consumer's using unrealistic linear depreciation. Some consumers can pass down, repurpose, or only need very basic things, but most consumers need much of the relative performance they first bought, break screens, can't handle embedded battery replacement logistics, etc, so most probably have replaced something like the iPhone SE before 4 years is up and are paying more than they would have expected.
      - GeekyBear 3y ago
        > most consumers need much of the relative performance The single core performance of the current Samsung A14 is about a third of the currently sold iPhone SE. If you're going to keep the same device many years, don't buy something with slow performance right out of the gate.
sho_hn 3y ago
Swapping the battery means you save the carbon footprint of manufacturing the non-battery parts, which have a pretty high cost to all of us in aggregate that should somehow factor into the "is it worth to keep it going" equation. I wonder how we can make that happen. My current phone is an S21 that's facing a plethora of failures (screen damage, flaky USB-C connector, weak battery, back cover delaminating) that are all individually fixable, but altogether I also find it hard to resist the pull of getting a new phone at that stage when I add up the numbers. But I feel increasingly really bad about not trying harder to go repair-first. Also because there's otherwise virtually no tech/feature reason to "upgrade" from something as recent as an S21 these days.
HumblyTossed 3y ago
So? They're not investments. They're simply devices. But, let's go with this. After ~5 years, phones will sell for $990 (up from 5 years ago @ $890). 990 - 250 (splitting the difference) is what ... 740? That's a LOT more than $89 (or even 99 in 5 years). If my phone is still up to date and performant enough for my tasks, I would be stupid not to pay 99 vs 740.
SirMaster 3y ago
He said cost of a new phone though. If we assume the user wants to buy a new phone in the same tier as the one they have now.
kelnos 3y ago
If so, that's a pretty disingenuous way to look at it. If I'm going to be comparing the cost of a battery replacement with an alternative, that alternative is going to be "buying a new phone". The depreciated value of my current phone is irrelevant.

xslvrxslwt 3y ago

Reasonable? $89? You don't realize you're in 1% of the world 's richest there in the US right? I replaced my 5000mAh battery myself for $12. beat that big corpo licker.

geodel 3y ago
LOL, but all these non-richest people must buy an iPhone and replace it 89 dollars?
kelnos 3y ago
We're specifically talking about the kinds of people who will spend $700+ on a new phone. Those people can surely afford $89 to replace the battery a couple years down the line.

ajonit 3y ago

Would love to see what others have to say on this but I suspect Apple replacement batteries are inferior compared to the one that comes with the new phone. 4 years of usage and battery max capacity was around 76%. I replaced my iPhone X battery last year. The new one I got is at 86% already and it is not even 12 months. (No usage pattern change. I replaced it from an Apple Store.)

kelnos 3y ago
I wonder if that can be accounted for by the fact that the software of today is more taxing than it was four years ago. You're probably using more battery charge every day today than you were four years ago to do the same things. That increases wear on the battery and will reduce its lifetime.