61–70 of 94 posts
The cheapest iPhone is also as expensive as some mid-range Android devices and completely inaccessible to a large chunk of the world's population. When a device that most will spend $449 on is "cheap" you have to admire Apple's price anchoring[0], they release a $1249 flagship and suddenly what the largest iPhone 5S flagshp cost ($442.09 inflation adjusted to 2020) at launch is considered "cheap." It is undeniably a…
And yet, my cheap android phone has two things that are infinitely more important to me: an aux port and an SD card slot. My phone would be fundamentally less usable (for me) without them, while quicker switching between apps etc would be a minor benefit at most. Chasing statistics (Fastest processor! Most megapixels! Longest battery life!) becomes useless after a certain point. Processors and megapixels are long pas…
Honestly, what do you use the SD card for? Even with movies for flights, I haven’t filled a phone up in years.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of people are spending many hours a week on their phones. And that time is noticeably more enjoyable with a better-functioning phone. I think it’s rational to compare the cost of phone to the cost of something like a car, appliance, or couch and consider how much value you get out of it for how many years when deciding whether the price tag is worth it. Personally, I’d pay at least a dollar an hour to always use…
> I’d pay at least a dollar an hour to always use a nicer phone That's 75% of a minimum wage in Montana.
Min wage in Montana is $8.50/hr .
And it's probably not healthy to be on your phone 8hrs a day.
But if you are, then a $1000 phone is only 25cents/hr over 2 years, when you can resell your phone for half price.
> Apple is laying out a roadmap for exactly what Google needs to do with its own chips. To ask the question: why would Google make better processors than Qualcomm? Apple has immense economies of scale at the high-end because that's the only thing they sell. Google's processor would be more niche than Qualcomm's (since manufacturers would need a Qualcomm modem to go with it rather than just grabbing an integrated Snap…
Eventually Google will stand up to them or else lose the phone war in wealthy developed nations.
The cheapest iPhone is also as expensive as some mid-range Android devices and completely inaccessible to a large chunk of the world's population. When a device that most will spend $449 on is "cheap" you have to admire Apple's price anchoring[0], they release a $1249 flagship and suddenly what the largest iPhone 5S flagshp cost ($442.09 inflation adjusted to 2020) at launch is considered "cheap." It is undeniably a…
Lots of people are spending many hours a week on their phones. And that time is noticeably more enjoyable with a better-functioning phone. I think it’s rational to compare the cost of phone to the cost of something like a car, appliance, or couch and consider how much value you get out of it for how many years when deciding whether the price tag is worth it. Personally, I’d pay at least a dollar an hour to always use…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I’d pay at least a dollar an hour to always use a nicer phone That's 75% of a minimum wage in Montana.
Units error and fact error. Min wage in Montana is $8.50/hr . And it's probably not healthy to be on your phone 8hrs a day. But if you are, then a $1000 phone is only 25cents/hr over 2 years, when you can resell your phone for half price.
It all a bit pointless math for HN crowd, but it does give some perspective - there are places where pay is very low and you don't even need to look far. People do actual work on their phones there.
> Apple is laying out a roadmap for exactly what Google needs to do with its own chips. To ask the question: why would Google make better processors than Qualcomm? Apple has immense economies of scale at the high-end because that's the only thing they sell. Google's processor would be more niche than Qualcomm's (since manufacturers would need a Qualcomm modem to go with it rather than just grabbing an integrated Snap…
Qualcomm forces obsolence to keep chips expensive with short lifespans of compatibility with OS upgrades, driving up TCO and killing resale value. Eventually Google will stand up to them or else lose the phone war in wealthy developed nations.
i don't care. what i care about is that the cheapest iPhone has a longer support period than the most expensive Android. it's actually insane and infuriating because I don't even like Apple but there literally is no other choice if you don't want to switch your phone every two years.
It really depends on what support you need - yes, the latest and greatest bling is dropped soon, but Samsung offers 4 years of security updates - that's quite a bit of time. You'll probably have a really bad battery by that point and it's probably worth an upgrade. You won't have all the latest and greatest OS bling, but you wouldn't have the latest and greatest anything but that point, and that's probably OK.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/19/07/22/apple-issues-ios-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Units error and fact error. Min wage in Montana is $8.50/hr . And it's probably not healthy to be on your phone 8hrs a day. But if you are, then a $1000 phone is only 25cents/hr over 2 years, when you can resell your phone for half price.
Saw some map showing Montana min wage is $4. Even if you use your phone 8hrs a day (a ton of people do for work), you own it for 24. So that's $24 a day. It all a bit pointless math for HN crowd, but it does give some perspective - there are places where pay is very low and you don't even need to look far. People do actual work on their phones there.
If I were making minimum wage I’d probably be more in the “buy an iPhone SE every 4 years” rather than “buy a top iPhone every 2 years” category.
But if I are going to critique other people’s spending patterns, I’d start with anyone who bought a new car, not a phone.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Lots of people are spending many hours a week on their phones. And that time is noticeably more enjoyable with a better-functioning phone. I think it’s rational to compare the cost of phone to the cost of something like a car, appliance, or couch and consider how much value you get out of it for how many years when deciding whether the price tag is worth it. Personally, I’d pay at least a dollar an hour to always use…
But why are phones that expensive to begin with? The actual hardware costs are magnitudes less than the retail price. For the price of a the cheapest iPhone X you can get a high end laptop. It doesn't make sense to me why other mass consumer electronics like PC's continuously get faster, better and cheaper but smartphones continuously get more expensive for only modest and incremental improvements.