121–130 of 339 posts
I feel like most techs keep our phone a bit longer. Me personally, I tend to upgrade every 3 generations.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> want a reasonably sized phone I think that's the biggest problem. If you accept >6" screens, you'll find a phone that hits most of those criteria. But if you want a smaller phone? iPhone 13 mini from 2021 or Pixel 4a from 2020. And I still would call those large, one-handing those screens is uncomfortable even with large hands. You want an actual small phone, around 5", like the early iPhones? Fucking XZ2 Compact f…
If it wasn't for the price I'd recommend a folding flip phone. I've had a folding phone for 2 years and all I have had to change out is actually the screen protector every year. It doesn't like the flexing, but they are cheap and take 5m to swap
I really need to one-hand my phone.
I bought refurbished iPhone SE 2nd gen from eBay for ~$130 in July 2023. Looks brand new. I use Chargie to extend battery life and a magnetic charging port adapter to eliminate charging port wear. When battery will wear out I’ll replace it with the one from iFixit. Let’s see for how long I can make this device last. https://chargie.org/
Aren't you years behind on security updates on that model though? I guess if I'm just using text, maps, and phone calls, I wouldn't care... I kinda like this strategy
It's hard to feel positive about upgrading my phone when every new phone seems to remove things I want while adding stuff I don't care about. My S10e is a reasonable size in my pocket. It has a headphone jack. It has an SD card slot. Any new Samsung phone I buy will be missing these things, and I'll be forced to pay hundreds of dollars extra to increase the on-board storage that will still be far less than the 512GB…
We want smaller cheaper phones! Paying $1-2k for a tablet sized phone is painful in the hands and on the wallet.
I am unable to really afford an upgrade to my iPhone, still using the same model I bought at university ten years ago. It still works well, although it can be a little slow at times depending on the application that I am using. There is no value benefit to upgrading at this time. For Android there may be for those who enjoy that operating system, but I do not enjoy Android so it is not a solution for me.
Phones 10 yrs old will have so many security holes it's not even funny.
It's hard to feel positive about upgrading my phone when every new phone seems to remove things I want while adding stuff I don't care about. My S10e is a reasonable size in my pocket. It has a headphone jack. It has an SD card slot. Any new Samsung phone I buy will be missing these things, and I'll be forced to pay hundreds of dollars extra to increase the on-board storage that will still be far less than the 512GB…
I have an iPhone 13 mini, the last <5" flagship phone you can buy. I'm not particularly tied to the iPhone ecosystem, but when this dies, I don't know what I'm going to do.
I'm also one of those individuals. While my iPhone 8 Plus is in need of replacement there is no way I will pay for the 15 Pro just to get proper high-speed USB-C... I'll wait for a 4th generation iPhone SE, the iPhone 16, or maybe just switch to Graphene OS (which would mean rejecting a lot of smartphone features and apps).
Curious: outside of people who take lots of high res video, what do people need high-speed USB C for?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
One issue is that your Pixel 5 won't get any more security updates (past October 2023). My wife's Pixel 4A is in the same boat - perfectly fine except no more security updates. Doesn't matter much right now, but will gradually start to matter over time.
That's true, though I kind of don't care. Many people of course do care. My risk tolerance is higher than most. I suspect companies like The Google hold security over people's heads in order to effectively inject code and encourage buying new phones. If I haven't installed new software in a very long time, and most of what I use is FOSS, and I rarely ever update my apps, and there's no reason to believe there's any v…
It shouldn't be - common smartphone malware attacks now steal banking info, personal info, and even look for sexting pics that are used as blackmail.
> I suspect companies like The Google hold security over people's heads in order to effectively inject code and encourage buying new phones
The former is nonsense but the latter is kinda true. Or rather, manufacturers bake the cost of updates into phones, which are already low margin devices. This encourages shorter lifespans, which is actually a problem for Google.
> there's no reason to believe there's any vulnerability
There's always going to be vulnerabilities. And, they'll likely come via web views, not through attacks directly on the app.
All it takes is a service you use that embeds a webview (tons of them), to get SCA'd or injection attacked, and you've got a huge problem.
All the majors have followed Apple's lead and create crippled Flagship phones with no 3.5mm, no MicroSD card, and compromised usability. Meanwhile, they don't bring me anything I don't already have on my Samsung Note 8.
On the Apple side, my wife still uses iPhone XR. It's fine. It surfs, it banks, it calls, it messages.
Photography is the one area new phones excel at, but jeebus - For $1500+, I can (and will) get a nice real camera instead :).