Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The only reason I can still use my note 3 is because I was able to easily replace the battery with a new one. that is exactly why you won't see removable batteries in new phones; how else do you drive the new buy cycle every 2 years? as speed and features, phones are pretty much 2010-desktops; good enough for what they do so they don't need replacement on the new hardware generation
Yep. I'm still using my galaxy s2. Had to replace the back twice and the battery once. Bought it in 2013. Total I've paid for my phone is about $50 over the last 3 years. It's really crazy how many people have been tricked into thinking they absolutely need to pay hundreds every year or 2 and that they need to pay dozens of dollars per month for service. Absolute racket.
Despite having a relatively newish s4, the number of apps that simply won't work with my phone is astonishing. And once I passed the 2-year point of ownership, the number of network glitches has noticeably increased (dropped calls, messages taking hours to go through, loss of 4G for hours for no apparent reason).
I wouldn't be surprised if some of these glitches are intentional.