Live data from Hacker News

With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

nytimes.com

421–430 of 730 posts

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#421
post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily true - if you have the know how or know someone who does, you can run a custom rom on your Android device, Lineage is updated weekly for many devices and will easily provide many more years of life. Once it's set up it's pretty hands off too, so just knowing one person who can do it for you once is pretty much enough. The official situation is slated to improve now with Android 8 separating the HAL an…

> Lineage is updated weekly for many devices You see, right there you described why most people, myself included, aren't interested in that. I can't be bothered to care about weekly OS updates, I tolerate the 1-2 yearly updates to my android because as someone in the security industry I understand the need for updates but that's it. A phone isn't something I care about tinkering with, it's a tool and I want it to wor…

I find it ironic that you're in the security industry, yet have no interest in getting security updates as quickly as possible.

We're not talking about major updates here, we're talking about updates that take about 30 seconds to apply plus a reboot, once a week and you know you're always running the latest and greatest from a security standpoint. Most change nothing from a user perspective.

Of course, you're free to treat these updates as you like, I typically only patch about once a month or when there's a major remote vulnerability.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#422
post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except it's really easy to accidentally destroy or lose a phone. That's the reason I don't buy expensive phones anymore, because I'll probably just drop it.

Can't you buy an insurance for that? Or search for "military grade phone cover".

[deleted]

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#423
post #381
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy insurance, assuming your not losing several phones a year that should not be an issue. PS: Dropping a phone should not destroy it. Over the last 20 years I have never used a case and shattered exactly one screen when fumbling it onto concrete. The new screen was not that expensive.

I've used a case with almost every phone and shattered 4 screens in the last 4 years.

Not to be rude, but it'd likely be prudent for you to learn to be more careful.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#424
post #388
post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy insurance, assuming your not losing several phones a year that should not be an issue. PS: Dropping a phone should not destroy it. Over the last 20 years I have never used a case and shattered exactly one screen when fumbling it onto concrete. The new screen was not that expensive.

That's another cost. So on top of the thousand dollar phone I now have to buy ~$150+ in cases (which are dubiously effective) and insurance. Instead I buy a ~$200 phone (which is just as good to me than a $1,000 phone) and when that one breaks I get another ~$200 phone. I don't care about a broken screen though, if the screen cracks then I'll just use it until the phone isn't functional anymore.

How can you spend $150+ in cases?

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#425
post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except a good keyboard really makes the difference, an iPhone is worse in many ways from my Xiaomi Mi5, that costed 200 euros. For example you can't use the iPhone as an usb disk.

What makes a keyboard better in your opinion? I once bought a 100$ mechanical keynoard and ended up going back to my 10$ keyboard because it was familiar I am not sure if the difference between keyboards is that price dependant

Better is mostly subjective. Even with mechanical keyboards, people like different types of switches so some will say their brown keys are better than blue keys or their white keys are better than red keys. Most of it is feeling. Different key types require different amounts of force and give different amounts of feedback.

Your $10 keyboard was better for you because you were more comfortable on it. My tenkeyless blue switch keyboard at home is nice, but I don't think it has much of an effect compared the Apple keyboard that I use at work.

Disclaimer: In the world of mechanical keyboards there are certainly keyboards that are better than others. That can't be said when comparing switch types, but within a certain switch type there are switches that are manufactured better than others. Here's a blog post with gifs that show the different switches: http://www.keyboardco.com/blog/index.php/2012/12/an-introduc...

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#426
post #27

Not excusing the price, but people these days spend multiple hours a day on their phones. Phones are as important as cars for example. How high prices can go ? Even higher imo People are ready to pay for expensive cars for a better experience and higher "social standing". Phones are not that different in this regard

We carry these things on our bodies damn near most of the day. We use them in our down time to read books and news. To communicate with others and consume information in a matter of seconds. To remind ourselves of things occurring throughout the day. To keep track of grocery lists, diets, fitness activities, sleep cycles and etc. It's basically the first fully functional extension of our body. So, absolutely... why t…

why not pay more ?

1) A CAN$100 phone gives you 75% of the experience, a CAN$250 gives your 95% of the experience

2) Android doesn't lock you to use a single app depot

3) Android doesn't require 2 or 3 login / password (iCloud + iTunes)

4) Android accounts work worldwide, it doesn't fail to log you in if you change countries (I had to re-create an AppleID when I moved to Canada because the US one no longer worked)

5) You don't have to use an extra step when migrating, just log-in et voila ! (ie. not iTunes shenanigans)

6) generally poor software full of UI glitches

7) No pressure sensitive touch-ID which fails to work with aging users (try to explain the concept to a +80 yo).

8) I can still use my $2 earplugs without an adapter

9) Android does not care what OS you use on your main desktop

10) MULTIPLE SIM ! Dual SIM phone is pretty much getting standard. I wish there was triple or quadruple SIM phones

11) External storage

12) Removable batteries

etc.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#427
post #332
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people spend more time on their phone than their PC. So, 1,000$ is not an unreasonable price if it's noticeably better. It's like spending 200+$ on a pair of shoes, they don't need to be that much better fit to be worth it. I mean 1,000$ seems bad, but that can translate to under 30 cents an hour if you're spending 4 hours a day on your phone.

Except it's really easy to accidentally destroy or lose a phone. That's the reason I don't buy expensive phones anymore, because I'll probably just drop it.

If you bought your phone with a credit card, check to see if it offers any kind of purchase protection. I dropped my phone about a month after I had, called the credit card company and they refunded me almost instantly. No forms to fill out, nothing to mail in.

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#428
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also know a guy who made his living for many years repairing and reselling iPhones, who simply buys the top of the line as soon as it comes out and resells the old one to pay for it, at as close to full price as he can get away with. Since he always gets the most specc'd out phone available, treats it very carefully, always inside an otterbox, and is a pretty decent salesman, he usually gets his price. He also clai…

I've had nexuses for the last 5 years and have been very happy and certainly not spent the sums you're alluding to. Unfortunately the nexus is now no more, it's the Pixel which just seems like a rip-off, if I'm going to spend that kind of money I'll go back to iPhones.

Consider Mi A1 - it's Google's android and more than decent hardware for 200 eur.

http://www.mi.com/in/mi-a1/android-one/

Re: With a $1k Price, Apple’s iPhone Crosses a Threshold

#430
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but there was a big jump in performance / new features between early iphone generations. Nowadays the difference is really marginal for every day use. You are only going to take better photos in marginal low light conditions, if you even take lots of photos, everything else will be pretty much the same experience. I'd argue that we are even in removal of features mode (audio jack, touch id) which is putting off…

Its surprising how good a used, $50 phone is today. You can get something on par with a Note 3 or Note 4 from LG and get two solid years of use out of it, perhaps more with ROMs. This is part of why I stopped buying the latest flagship, just didn't make sense for me to worry so much when I could avoid that entirely, and get 98% of the same performance and features.

There's no way I'd buy a used Android phone, unless it was from Google and was less than two years old. Android phone makers are terrible about security updates.
Post reply on HN