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I used to be a "cutting edge phone guy" where I'd get the latest iPhone ever year and the thought of having the older phone just didn't sit well with me. These
by cautiouscat 2mo ago
I used to be a "cutting edge phone guy" where I'd get the latest iPhone ever year and the thought of having the older phone just didn't sit well with me. These days though the upgrades are so marginal I don't even care. I'm looking forward to upgrading my three year old phone this year, but not because I expect it to be more than "better camera, faster and thinner" but just because its time.
These updates are so boring now!
- Someone1234 2mo agoI agree; but I'm not sure it is fixable. Without some technological advancement to actually move the needle, most manufacturers are just stuck with marginal hardware changes and then some cheesy software-locked exclusive to the latest models.
- testing22321 2mo ago> but just because its time If you already know the new phone isn’t going to do anything better for you, why is it time?
- NDlurker 2mo agoMight be cheaper than replacing the battery. Might want more storage. I have a Pixel 7 I'm still happy with other than 2 issues. Battery wear is starting to be noticeable. There's a loose cable or something that causes the screen to go to static sometimes. If I press firm on the bottom it's good again. With the cost of getting these issues repaired, I just started looking into getting a new phone instead.
- craftkiller 2mo agoAn official OEM battery for the Pixel 7 along with all the tools you need is $50. It is not expensive. The process to replace it is easy. Certainly nerve racking the first time but I've opened up my pixel phones at least 6 times now and it is pretty trivial (on the non-folding pixel phones). https://www.ifixit.com/products/google-pixel-7-battery-genuine https://www.ifixit.com/products/google-pixel-7-battery-genui...
- dgellow 2mo agoAnd you can easily find someone in any city who will replace it for cheap
- oslem 2mo agoI’m also getting ready to upgrade from my 3yo iPhone. For me, my phone is running out of storage, starting to feel a little slower, and the battery has less capacity. I’m sure I could wait another year, but I’d rather be a little ahead on updates than be behind on updates where my phone is creating problems for me.
- prmoustache 2mo agoWhat the hell are you doing to your phone to make it slower after only 3 years? I am running a pixel 6a, so lowest end and 5 generations behind current models and it doesn't feel slow, even compared to the phone my partner bought new last year. Or is it just psychologic? Given the price increase in storage chips, are 2026 phones even coming with more storage than 3 years ago?
- oslem 2mo agoCould be psychological tbh. It’s really not a big issue, but I’d rather refresh earlier. Although the storage problem is real and frustrating. And despite the chip shortages, the newer iPhones still come with far more storage than what I have now.
- Insanity 2mo agoWhy is it "time" after 3 years? They should hopefully still be getting software updates, at least security updates. I'm on an iPhone 13 since launch (almost 5 years ago) and still see no reason to upgrade. There just hasn't been anything 'exciting' in phones in many years. EDIT: should add, I've only used 50% of the 256GB storage and battery life is still fine (comfortably gets through an entire day+night). But I'm not a heavy phone user so that's perhaps atypical for a 5yo phone.
- cautiouscat 2mo agoIt’s a fair question. The battery is on the border of needing to be replaced, which is a $79 repair and would probably buy me another three years or so. But at this point I want something a bit snappier and I’ll probably replace the battery and use it as a backup phone.
- shaftway 2mo agoNot a fix for the battery, but if you're on Android, enable developer settings and change your animations to 0.5x speed (there are three settings to change). Every OS animation will take half as long. It makes an aging phone feel much snappier.
- netsharc 2mo agoWon't 0.5x speed make it slower (Driving 20mph instead of 40mph will get you somewhere in double the time). I just checked my phone, the phrasing is "Animation scale .5x" (Among other numbers), meaning it's scaled to take n times the time.
- deleted 2mo ago[deleted]
- shaftway 2mo agoThanks for the assist, I typed it up from memory.
- 2mo ago
- JMiao 2mo agoit is a phone. you use it to look up content and maybe endlessly scroll. i am very sure a new iphone is not boring to a young person getting their first phone. i am sorta sure that phones feel they've plateaued because present day app store policies no longer support high quality ideas.
- williamdclt 2mo agowhat a strange comment! It's totally fine, you do whatever you want, but it sounds like "I used to be an alcoholic drinking two 12-packs a day, now I don't even care about beer: I just have 6 a day and that's not because I want to be drunk but just because I feel like it". Like, sure it's quantitatively better but... it's not really qualitatively very different is it
- numpad0 2mo agoPhone advancements between 2007-2017 was insane. I wonder how much of it was Apple catching up to the cutting edge of phone tech leveraging its iOS advantage, vs just natural pace of innovations. Feels like there had been an invisible war.
- laweijfmvo 2mo agobetween the cost, lack of interesting new features, and often addition of features i do not want, it’s starting to seem like i may never get a new phone, and i’m ok with that
- DuncanCoffee 2mo agoI'd like my next phone to be a flip one. But really what I want is a Linux phone.
- nicbou 2mo agoI don't remember which iPhone I even have. I have a phone that does what I need and doesn't annoy the crap out of me. That's all I want. My last Pixel was rendered useless by a software update though.
- moritzwarhier 2mo agoNobody wants to cut the edge, when it comes to foldable phones, it seems. Also, more than 5 yrs after Galaxy Fold (I've never seen or held one IRL): is it really that valuable to have "marginless" foldable displays? Often times, users will divide the screen into halves, at least, when using large resolution. And users are also not too interested in curved or mangled output surfaces, the ideal is an evenly lighted 2D surface. If you were working on military technology, that's irrelevant of course. Then, the consumer tech is just a small venture capital driver. No "foldable" real currently comes close to two flexable screens placed close to each other. Consumers have repeatedly rejected this hype. The only interesting value is in completely flexible material with fixed-distance OLEDs on it, and that's a very complicated engineering problem approaching a digital "invibility coat". In-between these extreme uses, I struggle to see the benefit of foldable screns. A cheap and robust e-ink screen would be a welcome exception, but I have no idea how much the science overlaps with marginless, foldable LED panels.
- tuxracer 2mo agoFoldable screens are amazing when it comes to looking at code changes in pull requests
- andrekandre 2mo agotrue, though for me it’s an ipad mini, just small enough to fit on my pocket but big enough to read a whole page of code (and it only goes for a few hundred bucks vs thousands)
- spants 2mo ago... and for older eyes.
- shaftway 2mo agoI used the Microsoft Surface Duo, and the experience was terrible. I carry a Pixel 10 Fold, and 90% of the time I use it closed. But when I want to watch a video, or I want to show someone something. The bezel very much ruins that experience. And the Duo went even further by having hidden pixels, which made some UIs completely unusable. That said, I hardly think that foldable is the peak. I'd prefer a rollable phone that I can expand the screen on, with maybe an edge display. And the price is the real kicker. For the vast majority of the Android population, a phone at a price point about $1000 is just a non-starter.
- tekwarder 2mo agoAnd sometimes the updates are a step backwards. For example when Apple went to the Intel modem. Perhaps when they move to their own modem this year there might be a repeat, we'll have to keep our eyes peeled.
- hanspagel 2mo agoBut you can fold it.
- bpye 2mo agoI have a Z Flip 7. The Z Flip 8 is practically indistinguishable except for the SoC where they've gone from an Exynos to a Snapdragon.
- frollogaston 2mo agoMy wife's iPhone is 11 years old now, and it's still better than having a latest flagship Android
- pjmlp 2mo agoAs someone that has used pre-paid phones most of my life, starting with TMN Mimo in 1997, I have always replaced my devices when they break down or got stolen, and that was it. Back in the day there were no updates anyway, until Symbian or Windows CE/Pocket PC became common, and even them had at most a single firmware update during their lifetime, which had to be installed via the developer tools SDK.
- myaccountonhn 2mo agoI find this to be great, less e-waste. Let's hope we can have phones that last 10+ years.