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US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

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Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#181

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.

Technically the LTE iWatches are a <5" phone, too.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#182
I just upgraded from a base model iPhone 13 (I think) to a 15 pro max. I cannot see a single difference apart from the strange pill like thing at the top of the screen. Even the battery life was fine on the old one. It really feels like an “emperors new clothes” upgrade.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#183
post #13

Phones are feature complete. No huge compelling reason to upgrade. If you work for a living then it makes no sense to spend money on upgrading if you already have a relatively newish phone

It would be nice to have full LIDAR based 3D scanning on phones, one for better imaging and two to provide datasets for 2D to 3D LLMs.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#184

Not only will I not be upgrading to another smartphone, I'm two months in on my dumb phone. It's been an incredible and liberating experience. Not only am I not glued to the smartphone anymore, my phone bill is now $15 / month, haha. If you're thinking about ditching your smartphone, now is a great time. There are lots of options out there.

I’m not glued to my phone as I ditched most social media years ago. It’s still great to have as a travel camera (even night photos look good now), use google maps, have a browser on a decent screen when needed, and for podcasts when I take a daily walk. It’s social media itself that kept me glued to my screen. It’s also liberating to take pictures in a relaxed way for yourself and not worry about getting the perfect shot to share. It helps keep you in the moment.

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try OsmAnd, it's great!

The maps are fantastic but I've had real trouble finding places or street addresses there

The data is taken from OpenStreetMap, which is like Wikipedia for maps. You can improve coverage in your area!

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#186

Not only will I not be upgrading to another smartphone, I'm two months in on my dumb phone. It's been an incredible and liberating experience. Not only am I not glued to the smartphone anymore, my phone bill is now $15 / month, haha. If you're thinking about ditching your smartphone, now is a great time. There are lots of options out there.

It's tempting, but I don't think I can give up Google Maps and the various chat apps I use.

If you have the willpower, an acceptable middle ground might be dropping your data plan. I've got a Pixel, but my plan is also ~~$15/mo~~ $25/mo. This covers more than enough for maps and music, but I've had to remove social media to stop auto-playing videos. I find it's the best of both worlds!

(Edit: Checked my invoice, and I'm not receiving one of the discounts I was expecting.)

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last couple of times I upgraded, bloat in maps navigation was reason enough to upgrade to a faster phone. I don't want a sluggish UI while driving. Hoping Google doesn't cram much more ads or junk into the maps app or Waze.

Try OsmAnd, it's great!

OsmAnd is actually one of the main reasons I'm considering upgrading my phone. The 6GB memory in my P5a is apparently not sufficient to take a photo and not kill OsmAnd in the background...

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's tempting, but I don't think I can give up Google Maps and the various chat apps I use.

If you have the willpower, an acceptable middle ground might be dropping your data plan. I've got a Pixel, but my plan is also ~~$15/mo~~ $25/mo. This covers more than enough for maps and music, but I've had to remove social media to stop auto-playing videos. I find it's the best of both worlds! (Edit: Checked my invoice, and I'm not receiving one of the discounts I was expecting.)

If this $15/mo plan you have is available to US residents, can you please share details?

Re: US Smartphone Shipments Decline 19% in Q3 2023 as More Americans Delay Upgrade

#190
I don't think I've ever upgraded my phone while the previous one was still operable :)

That said, Apple is pretty good about making sure their phones fail on a predictable timeline (2 years? Oh, time for the battery to stop retaining charge, or the touchscreen to stop responding, etc).

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