3 ms·

My personal pet peeve: Budget phones have barely budged over the last seven years. Look at the Moto G series in comparison: https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php

My personal pet peeve: Budget phones have barely budged over the last seven years. Look at the Moto G series in comparison: https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?&idPhone1=8103&idPhone3=12447&idPhone2=10051 https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?&idPhone1=8103&idPhone... 8core arm big.little, 1080p IPS, 15MP front, GPS, LTE. Am I talking about 2016 or 2023? All that's changed is that the screen glass has gotten worse. Also, I checked a few months ago and as far as I can tell it isn't possible any longer to get a Thinkpad T series with a 4K monitor. edit: Though they seem to have fixed that at least.

sapiogram 3y ago
A few counterpoints: * If going by the article, price has decreased from €130 to €95, a significant reduction even if not accounting for inflation. * RAM has doubled from 2GB to 4GB. * Per-core CPU performance has presumably increased considerably.
- FeepingCreature 3y ago
  Counter-counters: - GSM price check is extremely random and can basically be ignored. Afaict, the price is stable with inflation. - Agree on RAM. Still, a doubling over seven years is not exactly Moore pace anymore. - Checking on cpubenchmark.com, A53 vs A55 is like a 20% increase. The A75 is admittedly a nice step up.
  - znpy 3y ago
    > - Agree on RAM. Still, a doubling over seven years is not exactly Moore pace anymore. RAM has been slowing down a lot in the last ~10 years. I had 16GB ram in my ThinkPad X220 ten years ago and the W520 could already get 32GB ram. Laptops with 128GB ram have been around for at least five years (workstation-class laptop). Why are computers still being shipped with 8GB ram (or less)? Why is 32GB a premium and not the bare minimum? A whole class of performance issues could be entirely avoided just by having enough ram.
    - fulladder 3y ago
      I agree that 8 GB of RAM seems weird these days. However, I bought an MB Air in 2022 with only 8 GB, and I can shed some light. My thought process was that I'm going to use this machine for just a very limited number of things and this would not become my daily driver. Therefore, I saw myself as buying merely a "smartphone with a larger screen," which is a category where I typically just buy the least expensive and lightest weight choice. The 8 GB has proven to be entirely adequate for my use case.
    - wolvesechoes 3y ago
      > Why is 32GB a premium and not the bare minimum? A whole class of performance issues could be entirely avoided just by having enough ram Yeah, throw more hardware at it!
      - znpy 3y ago
        I get your point and you’re largely right. But some software is largely unfixable (I’m thinking of mainstream software like windows and software commonly used) and more hardware is one of the least executed solutions actually
araes 3y ago
If the screen glass thing is really an issue, possibly look into one of the industrial type phones. Cannot recommend, because I do not own one, yet they at least look like they're meant to not break on worksites. https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s62-pro-smartphone/ https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s62-pro-smartphone/ Plus, thermal camera. Honestly, that's actually a bit of an issue somehow. I kind of want to recommend something I've seen and thought was cool, yet the ad spam has gotten so bad lately everywhere, it now reeks of recommend-a-bot's constantly. Which is at least vaguely in theme with the article.
johngossman 3y ago
At some point in the adoption curve (cars, computers, stereos, cameras all come to mind) that’s what happens in the budget range. Manufacturers use technological advances to reduce the cost rather than improve the product because customers who want to stay on the cutting edge migrate to the high-end. Think consumer digicams around 2005 or the 90s laptops I mentioned (or cheap 70s cars if you’re that old).

sapiogram 3y ago

A few counterpoints: * If going by the article, price has decreased from €130 to €95, a significant reduction even if not accounting for inflation. * RAM has doubled from 2GB to 4GB. * Per-core CPU performance has presumably increased considerably.

FeepingCreature 3y ago
Counter-counters: - GSM price check is extremely random and can basically be ignored. Afaict, the price is stable with inflation. - Agree on RAM. Still, a doubling over seven years is not exactly Moore pace anymore. - Checking on cpubenchmark.com, A53 vs A55 is like a 20% increase. The A75 is admittedly a nice step up.
- znpy 3y ago
  > - Agree on RAM. Still, a doubling over seven years is not exactly Moore pace anymore. RAM has been slowing down a lot in the last ~10 years. I had 16GB ram in my ThinkPad X220 ten years ago and the W520 could already get 32GB ram. Laptops with 128GB ram have been around for at least five years (workstation-class laptop). Why are computers still being shipped with 8GB ram (or less)? Why is 32GB a premium and not the bare minimum? A whole class of performance issues could be entirely avoided just by having enough ram.
  - fulladder 3y ago
    I agree that 8 GB of RAM seems weird these days. However, I bought an MB Air in 2022 with only 8 GB, and I can shed some light. My thought process was that I'm going to use this machine for just a very limited number of things and this would not become my daily driver. Therefore, I saw myself as buying merely a "smartphone with a larger screen," which is a category where I typically just buy the least expensive and lightest weight choice. The 8 GB has proven to be entirely adequate for my use case.
  - wolvesechoes 3y ago
    > Why is 32GB a premium and not the bare minimum? A whole class of performance issues could be entirely avoided just by having enough ram Yeah, throw more hardware at it!
    - znpy 3y ago
      I get your point and you’re largely right. But some software is largely unfixable (I’m thinking of mainstream software like windows and software commonly used) and more hardware is one of the least executed solutions actually

araes 3y ago

If the screen glass thing is really an issue, possibly look into one of the industrial type phones. Cannot recommend, because I do not own one, yet they at least look like they're meant to not break on worksites. https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s62-pro-smartphone/ https://www.catphones.com/en-us/cat-s62-pro-smartphone/ Plus, thermal camera. Honestly, that's actually a bit of an issue somehow. I kind of want to recommend something I've seen and thought was cool, yet the ad spam has gotten so bad lately everywhere, it now reeks of recommend-a-bot's constantly. Which is at least vaguely in theme with the article.

johngossman 3y ago

At some point in the adoption curve (cars, computers, stereos, cameras all come to mind) that’s what happens in the budget range. Manufacturers use technological advances to reduce the cost rather than improve the product because customers who want to stay on the cutting edge migrate to the high-end. Think consumer digicams around 2005 or the 90s laptops I mentioned (or cheap 70s cars if you’re that old).