5 ms·
I noticed two ways. Either you don't get any updates and at one point you can't use any app because it's outdated. Or you get all updates and at one point you
by k__ 3y ago
I noticed two ways.
Either you don't get any updates and at one point you can't use any app because it's outdated.
Or you get all updates and at one point you can't use any apps, because your phone became unbearably slow.
- pachico 3y agoYup, that's what I'm dealing with and it sucks. I am typing this from a phone that I am already considering replacing for this very same reason although it does everything well and I looks brand new (rubber case, screen protection, etc.). I understand phones are harder to upgrade because space is very limited but the e-waste we're generating (and the money impact) seems something that needs to be addressed.
- robertlagrant 3y ago> and the money impact I imagine if this is something that lots of people want, it will result in more alternatives, but also raised prices. So it might not save money, but it might well result in less waste.
- zelphirkalt 3y agoI think it is also about the use cases and apps you use. For example: I have 1 phone older than 10y serving as a music player, almost never having Internet connection, almost always being in airplane mode. Another phone as my normal phone, also nearing 10y old, with a screen that is partially broken, but still accepts touch input fine everywhere, inherited from someone else, used usually only for Signal and Hackernews reading, rarely browsing in Firefox, nothing really feeling slow. Then I have one much newer phone, but waaay cheaper phone and it felt terribly slow right from the start, got it only to separate concerns, and as a throwaway. Not sure what its issue is really. My point is that with reasonable apps old phones work just fine. Just don't install crap apps or facebook or something like that, stick to well working apps. Use a phone as a phone, not as your universal computing interface and you should be OK for a long time.
- xnickb 3y ago> Use a phone as a phone, not as your universal computing interface Sounds limiting. Nowadays there are plenty of phones that can handle reasonable workloads at a reasonable price. Especially if you don't care about the camera.
- zelphirkalt 3y agoWhat is limiting is, to rely on a smart phone to do computing. A vast majority of the phones is locked down and steering people away from general computing ability. Can you do whatever you want on your phone? No. Not with the usual OS on them. Need to root it, jailbreak it, whatever. Then you have a phone with a bad input device. Yes you can improve it with something like hacker keyboard and whatever, but it is far far from being productive like a normal computer. I am aware more and more people only use smart phones and don't own a general computer any longer, but that is a really sad development. A smart phone will usually not encourage experimentation and getting into general computing. It is a dumbed down device. Yes, one should be able to use a phone for computing, but generally that's not available out of the box and it takes effort to make it somewhat OK to use it for computing.
- Levitz 3y agoDepending on how comfortable you are with tinkering with your devices (in terms of software) I recommend you take a look at LineageOS and check if your device is supported. I used a motorola moto g (the one with 1 GB of RAM!) from 2015 until last year.
- rekoil 3y agoThe problem is really that the SoCs aren't maintained for long, and the complexity of the SoC concept makes maintaining it yourself as the device manufacturer at best impractical, maybe even impossible if the SoC manufacturer won't release necessary source code to you. They want it this way because then they can sell more SoCs because users end up upgrading more often, and device manufacturers (besides Fairphone) don't complain because their interests are aligned. On the Apple side you see devices getting support for much longer as Apple designs and maintains it's SoCs in-house, and at least to a degree value device longevity because that keeps second-hand prices relatively high, and that aligns somewhat with Apples interests. Not quite 10 years, but we've seen feature updates for just under 7 years with the iPhone 6s (released 2015), and it's still receiving security updates and bug fixes.