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When I'm making a larger purchasing decision, I like to base it on my net worth. It makes things very clear. Let's say you have a net worth of 25k, which seems

When I'm making a larger purchasing decision, I like to base it on my net worth. It makes things very clear. Let's say you have a net worth of 25k, which seems about median for a 30 year old in the US. So you're saying, I gotta spend 2% of my financial existence on a stinkin telephone? A nearly-guaranteed depreciating asset, at that! For some of you, that might make a lot of sense - you spend 99% of your waking lives on those things. But for me, not so much. I'll opt for the $80 Android I found on Amazon. I personally rather spend higher percentages of my net worth building businesses and memories/experiences, not things.

toxican 11y ago
I think a lot of it really depends on how often and for how long you use the phone. I spent $500+ for my iPhone 5s and I've used it for almost 2 years now with a cheap Virgin Mobile plan. I use it daily (maybe too much even) and once I upgrade from it, I'll continue to use it periodically as a testing platform for my web development. I'll probably get another year or two of use out of it for that purpose before testing for the 5s isn't worth the trouble. And honestly I can't stand the cheap Android phones. Android is a solid OS, but the cheap devices it often appears on are just awful. It causes a lot of headaches...at least $500 worth to me at least :)
- MicroBerto 11y ago
  Yeah, on Virgin here too. Not being a big data user since I'm usually on desktop, I don't see the need for a fancy plan. Those monthly phone bills (on top of your Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc etc etc etc) are the real killers. I've just found that for a casual user who's not looking to sport a luxury brand in my pocket, $80 Android once every 14-20 months is better than a $500 iPhone every two years.
fweespeech 11y ago
Yeah, but most of us buying expensive phones are on-call and need a powerful wifi hot spot and a bunch of other things out of it. I literally can't think of a company where you end up on-call and the expectation is you can respond in [at most] 15 minutes to an emergency/alert. That means a laptop + mobile wifi hotspot [phone] everywhere you go. The cheaper phones tend to have worse reception. In my office, I used to only get Edge due to the thick walls. My Nexus 6 has no trouble getting to LTE.
- freehunter 11y ago
  Your comment made me think of something I've experienced with recent iPhones. I have a 5S, my wife has a 5C, and oftentimes she will get reception when I get none, even though we are sitting side by side. I'm not sure why the newer, higher-end phone gets worse reception, but it does in my case.
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    Yeah, if its the same provider I'm surprised. But yeah, the quality of the reception varies b/t phone lines I've noticed which is annoying.
- z0r 11y ago
  If you are on call, your company should be paying for your phone.
  - fweespeech 11y ago
    They would if I wanted to have a company phone. I don't want a company phone and have to juggle two phones.
pavel_lishin 11y ago
> So you're saying, I gotta spend 2% of my financial existence on a stinkin telephone? I choose to think of it as spending 2% of my financial existence on an internet browser, a world-wide atlas, a communication device that I use to connect to five various methods of communication, an e-mail client, an entertainment system (games, video, podcasts, music). But I guess I'd be making the same argument if this was about cars, and not smartphones.
- MicroBerto 11y ago
  All those come with the $80 Android. At some point, an iPhone becomes a minor convenience add-on / vanity / luxury choice. I'm perfectly fine with that decision, too... most people want to look successful... but not at an appreciable amount of net worth, IMHO.

toxican 11y ago

I think a lot of it really depends on how often and for how long you use the phone. I spent $500+ for my iPhone 5s and I've used it for almost 2 years now with a cheap Virgin Mobile plan. I use it daily (maybe too much even) and once I upgrade from it, I'll continue to use it periodically as a testing platform for my web development. I'll probably get another year or two of use out of it for that purpose before testing for the 5s isn't worth the trouble. And honestly I can't stand the cheap Android phones. Android is a solid OS, but the cheap devices it often appears on are just awful. It causes a lot of headaches...at least $500 worth to me at least :)

MicroBerto 11y ago
Yeah, on Virgin here too. Not being a big data user since I'm usually on desktop, I don't see the need for a fancy plan. Those monthly phone bills (on top of your Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc etc etc etc) are the real killers. I've just found that for a casual user who's not looking to sport a luxury brand in my pocket, $80 Android once every 14-20 months is better than a $500 iPhone every two years.

fweespeech 11y ago

Yeah, but most of us buying expensive phones are on-call and need a powerful wifi hot spot and a bunch of other things out of it. I literally can't think of a company where you end up on-call and the expectation is you can respond in [at most] 15 minutes to an emergency/alert. That means a laptop + mobile wifi hotspot [phone] everywhere you go. The cheaper phones tend to have worse reception. In my office, I used to only get Edge due to the thick walls. My Nexus 6 has no trouble getting to LTE.

freehunter 11y ago
Your comment made me think of something I've experienced with recent iPhones. I have a 5S, my wife has a 5C, and oftentimes she will get reception when I get none, even though we are sitting side by side. I'm not sure why the newer, higher-end phone gets worse reception, but it does in my case.
- fweespeech 11y ago
  Yeah, if its the same provider I'm surprised. But yeah, the quality of the reception varies b/t phone lines I've noticed which is annoying.
z0r 11y ago
If you are on call, your company should be paying for your phone.
- fweespeech 11y ago
  They would if I wanted to have a company phone. I don't want a company phone and have to juggle two phones.

pavel_lishin 11y ago

> So you're saying, I gotta spend 2% of my financial existence on a stinkin telephone? I choose to think of it as spending 2% of my financial existence on an internet browser, a world-wide atlas, a communication device that I use to connect to five various methods of communication, an e-mail client, an entertainment system (games, video, podcasts, music). But I guess I'd be making the same argument if this was about cars, and not smartphones.

MicroBerto 11y ago
All those come with the $80 Android. At some point, an iPhone becomes a minor convenience add-on / vanity / luxury choice. I'm perfectly fine with that decision, too... most people want to look successful... but not at an appreciable amount of net worth, IMHO.