Keeping the Same Phone for More Than Two Years Isn't a Crazy Idea

I purchased the note 3 when it was released. Best phone I've had and probably will have for the foreseeable future. I wanted a removable battery and pen to write down things. No other competitors come close to it, well maybe the note 4 or 5 (whichever one still had the removable battery ).
 
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///AMG said:
I buy a new iPhone practically every year because I can and because its the device I use the most so I am ok with spending 1k~ every year on it. Considering this is the place where people routinely spend 2-3k on their computers every year I dont know why so many people are judgmental.
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Good for you, quite alot dont.
I just overhauled my PC as the mobo was actually damaged and there is only soo many data resets I can tolerate (plus 2nd gen i7). This new Ryzen build should keep me tied over for a good 5-6years with a GPU upgrade in a couple (re-used for this build)

My phone? Pixel and its only a pixel because my nexus5 finally died... The 6h battery life was annoying but screen finally dying after 3y was enough
 
[21CW]killerofall said:
I am still rocking an LG G2. Nothing wrong with the thing, it does everything I want it to, and I still get over 30+ hours of consecutive power on time (with normal use) without out having to charge it. Sure it is a bit slow but that doesn't really bother me. If it ain't broke, don't fix (or replace) it.
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The LG G2 really isn't that slow for most things -- especially if you are running a build without all the manufacturers crap.
I'm running Lineage 14.1 (Nougat) on my G2 and it works amazingly well.
 
Was on a note 3 prior to moving to Apple. The first year was semi nice, then Samsung forgot the phone existed. It got one final upgrade which completely borked the phone and I wrote it off after Samsung had not fixed it after a month. I'm not dealing with that noise again.

My wife's iPhone 5 still gets software updates and it runs great!
 
my last 3 phones were great phones, LG G2--> Note 3-->note 5

Someone broke my G2 so i upgraded, it was a real smooth experience, i imagine it holds up very well today. Note 3 was also very smooth, I gave it to somebody and moved to the note 5, where its also very smooth.

Before the G2 era of phones and snapdragon 800+ cpus, yes, the phones could be faster, but today if you have a snapdragon 800/810/820/835/etc they all offer good OS experience. (latest phone games obviously vary).

I don't see the need to upgrade any of these phones anymore. I could use a better camera, and sure more battery life wont hurt, but it does everything I need it or want it to do.
 
MrTryfe said:
The support period for the iDevices is great...the actual support itself? Not so much. After a couple of big iOS updates, you can noticeably feel the OS starting to wear on older devices. Though with the much better specs on the recent devices, I think this could change.
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If android was updated after two years those devices would also see slow downs. Honestly, we just got rid of our iPhone 5 and it still performed great on the latest operating system. Just like computers, they slow down after a while with the newer o/s.
 
And in my opinion two years being the "norm" for phones especially an $800 flagship is ridiculous. $800 should get you at least 4 years of solid service.
 
And yet I can still use my wife's old ass Kyocera with Android 4 point whatever.
Why would anyone equate no OS updates with it turning into a brick or something is beyond me.
Matter of fact ANY company in Alphabet's position would have to take the same approach. These are devices with very obvious planned obsolecense, the market is way too wide and varied. Good news is MS i guess is looking to make computers the same way, with its sealed shut shit.
 
Iphone 5c here, still on 9.3.1. Any reason to upgrade? I'm afraid they'll pull some shit with the newest OS update and make this thing unusable.

Otherwise this is prolly the best phone I've had. I enjoy the iphone environent (granted my usuage is limited to phone/text/light browsing), it doesn't feel half assed to me like Android does. It's been rock solid/stable and its plastic! I tend to drop my phone a lot... (My old 4s took a hell of a beating before it finally died from abuse).
 
GotNoRice said:
I agree that it would be nice if most phones received updates for longer periods, but not getting new updates, in itself, doesn't prevent you from continuing to use your phone longer.
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I'd argue the opposite, that continuing to use phones, just like with computers, with known open vulnerabilities that you know will never get patched is a HUGE problem and a very bad idea.

Phones really need to move to the computer model, with a single unified binary OS release, and separate drivers, taking OS updates out of the hands of the OEM and putting them into the hands of the OS maker, to push directly to the end user.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I'd argue the opposite, that continuing to use phones, just like with computers, with known open vulnerabilities that you know will never get patched is a HUGE problem and a very bad idea.

Phones really need to move to the computer model, with a single unified binary OS release, and separate drivers, taking OS updates out of the hands of the OEM and putting them into the hands of the OS maker, to push directly to the end user.
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At least apps keep getting updated.
 
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Have an SGS2 I didn't update for yonks as well as prior owner (2.26 or whatever) and no issues. Could be slow though. The few messaging apps get updated and that's all I really use other than music or camera or call. Phone is 99% of the time not on a mobile network.
Flashed to Omega24/ android 4.1? and what a difference. Like a new phone, biggest software update jump I've ever seen.

So no, don't care and won't upgrade for now as it's not frustrating to use any more. That's a 2011 quad core phone and it's good enough.

Two years grumble grumble god damn adult children these days
 
Private_Ops said:
Iphone 5c here, still on 9.3.1. Any reason to upgrade? I'm afraid they'll pull some shit with the newest OS update and make this thing unusable.

Otherwise this is prolly the best phone I've had. I enjoy the iphone environent (granted my usuage is limited to phone/text/light browsing), it doesn't feel half assed to me like Android does. It's been rock solid/stable and its plastic! I tend to drop my phone a lot... (My old 4s took a hell of a beating before it finally died from abuse).
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Iv never used Apple but pretty much every time an iPhone user wants to show me something on their phone they sure seem to have a bear of a time for the easiest phone to use. The half assed made Android meme died long long ago. Android is a very polished os.
 
I personally tend to prefer older devices - my fave phone ever, an LG G4, was released in May 2015 so it's past that 2 year point and I'd get another (and will soon) before I'd fork over $600+ for anything new and I don't give a damn what device we're talking about made by whatever manufacturer.

Hell, I got an Amazon Fire Phone last week for like $10 + $22 for a new battery and it works just fine, running Lineage currently and with the April 2017 security patches too. I don't care if the actual manufacturer gives up supporting their devices, that's not relevant to me at all because I'm one of those pesky people that likes to experiment with devices and I don't care to run their OEM stock firmware and ROMs but prefer to use custom stuff like CyanogenMod when it existed and now has become Lineage along with many other custom versions of Android for given devices.

N4CR said:
That's a 2011 quad core phone and it's good enough.
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Just for the record, the Samsung Galaxy S 2 models were dual cores, both the Exynos models and the Qualcomm too. ;)
 
Tiberian said:
Just for the record, the Samsung Galaxy S 2 models were dual cores, both the Exynos models and the Qualcomm too. ;)
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Lmao the ole' memory banks failed big time there.

Cheers for heads up on lineage. If I ever make a jump I'll check it out. Cheers
 
I'm not too fussed about OS update support (critical vulnerabilities notwithstanding) but I tend to find that pretty much every phone I've owned in the last ten years has become nigh-on unusable after a couple of years due to battery life issues. Not so much of a problem when you can replace the battery, but that seems to be becoming increasingly difficult.
 
Galaxy Nexus here. Running cyanogen with 6.0.1, only I've been to lazy to update. This started out on 2.1? Somewhere around there. I have zero incentive to upgrade, there is literally nothing new phones can do that is worth losing my changeable battery and unlocked bootloader.

Just recently had the microphone go bad, it cost me $5 and about 10 minutes to repair. Yearly updates on phones is just nothing more than a massive waste of money if you can't show huge improvements in your productivity. Phones have become nothing but status symbols for those with bad money management skills.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
<snip>Phones have become nothing but status symbols for those with bad money management skills.
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Tomayto, Tomahto

Some would say having a GTX 1080TI is an epeen status symbol. Bottom line is, if someone enjoy having something new who are you to questing their happiness? What kind of car do you drive? What kind of neighborhood do you live in? All could be considered status symbols. Buying a brand new car could be considered bad money management skills, but if you have the money who cares?

I digress,

Still chugging along with my well kept S5 (rooted and unlocked using an old XDA MOAR rom), but I am ready for something newer.
 
This is exactly why I own an Iphone. Long ago ... I was watching the early wars between Apple and Android and was still using a Motorola Razr flip phone. It placed calls and received and sent texts. It still worked and it wasn't prone to the virus's that smartphones were. I watched how Apple treated its customers and how the Android group of manufacturers treated theirs. Apple usually stopped supporting an object when it couldn't run the new platform well. (Save for this last time when they put IOS 10 on the Iphone 5 32bit then told us that the IPAD 3 couldn't get it cause it was 32bit.) Sometimes they lie. But still the ipad 3 launched March 2012 and IOS 10 is Sept 2016. The iphone 5 launched Sept 2012 btw. Still we got new OS support for 4 yrs+ Apple has randomly dropped support for MAC's around the 6yr lifespan mark. I say randomly because they dropped machines that were more powerful from Sierra and kept machines that were much weaker supported. However, that 6yr point is about where that really fell if you were looking for their "logic." Back then I saw Android manufacturers not offering the new OS the very next year or it taking a year later for the older phones to even get it. I watched the support of the fragmented Android universe suffer. The only device that got support was the buy it from Google phones. Even then they dropped it after 2 yrs. Microsoft had no idea what it wanted exactly so buying theirs was silly. Thus, I bought an Iphone 5 as my first real smartphone. It physically began to have hardware failures in late 2016. Just over 4 yrs later. I bought a B-Stock Iphone SE with a small scratch on the edge of the screen that kept it from being called "new." for half price. It is really a Iphone 6S in a 5 case and will be supported for quite a while. I have little fear about updates or worry. I get a lot of ridicule from my fellow people in IT for not owning Android and buying a new phone constantly just to get software. I look at them and shake my head. I won't pay that much for something that doesn't have support.

On a side note, I own an Asus Zenwatch 2 (which will eventually get the android wear 2 update.) I find it funny that the watches for Android have better support than the 1000 dollar phones. I can't believe that I own Apple products now, but their support for their mobile products has trumped the rest of the market so here I am.
 
still using a Lumia 1520 which I bought used in 2014. Will use it till it dies or something actually stops me from using it on a phone network.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I'd argue the opposite, that continuing to use phones, just like with computers, with known open vulnerabilities that you know will never get patched is a HUGE problem and a very bad idea.

Phones really need to move to the computer model, with a single unified binary OS release, and separate drivers, taking OS updates out of the hands of the OEM and putting them into the hands of the OS maker, to push directly to the end user.
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I have a feeling that Samsung would rather watch the world burn (or switch to Tizen) than to go stock Android.
 
I usually do 2 or 3 years and sell the old one on Ebay. My wife likes to destroy hers to the point where they no longer function.

I have an Alcatel Idol 3 that's coming up on 2 years old. It's very close to stock android and I love it. Wifey has been on Samsung since Galaxy 1, and using her phone just seems weird to me, like everything is backwards. I think it started with Kit Kat but since been upgraded to 6.01 Marshmallow.

I'll probably milk this for another year then look at whatever the current Idol is or maybe a Nexus. Battery life seems about the same, but I know it has to be charged every day and plan accordingly.
 
JMccovery said:
I have a feeling that Samsung would rather watch the world burn (or switch to Tizen) than to go stock Android.
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Why is it that everyone always looks to Samsung as the standard bearer for Android phones?

I couldn't give a rats ass what Samsung does or does not want to do. While their hardware is pretty awesome (when it's not catching on fire, that is) their crappy custom ROMs mean that I would never buy a Samsung device under any circumstance.

I did own a Galaxy S3 back in the day, and it was a great phone after I flashed a custom ROM to it. In our modern era of locked unbreakable bootloaders Samsung is dead to me. Their phones are not even on my list of devices I'd consider at all.

Google has the power to change all this though, by changing the license agreement for the use of Android.

Personally I would love to see some common sense regulation for mobile devices. Something like this:

- Requirement to provide frequent security patches (not feature patches) for the serviceable life of the device. (4 years?)

- Ban all carrier exclusives. All phones must work on all networks, and ban carrier locks.

- Require all phones to be compatible with all network frequencies in use by any mobile carrier

- Ban locked boot loaders, giving end users full choice of how to run their devices.

Phones and tablets are essentially small computers. It's time they get treated that way, instead of disposable consumer devices.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
Why is it that everyone always looks to Samsung as the standard bearer for Android phones?

I couldn't give a rats ass what Samsung does or does not want to do. While their hardware is pretty awesome (when it's not catching on fire, that is) their crappy custom ROMs mean that I would never buy a Samsung device under any circumstance.

I did own a Galaxy S3 back in the day, and it was a great phone after I flashed a custom ROM to it. In our modern era of locked unbreakable bootloaders Samsung is dead to me. Their phones are not even on my list of devices I'd consider at all.

Google has the power to change all this though, by changing the license agreement for the use of Android.

Personally I would love to see some common sense regulation for mobile devices. Something like this:

- Requirement to provide frequent security patches (not feature patches) for the serviceable life of the device. (4 years?)

- Ban all carrier exclusives. All phones must work on all networks, and ban carrier locks.

- Require all phones to be compatible with all network frequencies in use by any mobile carrier

- Ban locked boot loaders, giving end users full choice of how to run their devices.

Phones and tablets are essentially small computers. It's time they get treated that way, instead of disposable consumer devices.
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Cant you change the launcher on a Samsung?
I took my cheap ass LG, searched google on the playstore, downloaded pretty much everything, changed the launcher, and I got a pretty close to stock Android (sans some LG contagion.. which is not so bad anyway).
I know 'stock' Android quite well from using the nexus 6.. its really what it should be.. I am sure a lot of the poor android experience had now, are phone with manufacturer's (or worse carriers) contagion software.
 
Uvaman2 said:
Cant you change the launcher on a Samsung?
I took my cheap ass LG, searched google on the playstore, downloaded pretty much everything, changed the launcher, and I got a pretty close to stock Android (sans some LG contagion.. which is not so bad anyway).
I know 'stock' Android quite well from using the nexus 6.. its really what it should be.. I am sure a lot of the poor android experience had now, are phone with manufacturer's (or worse carriers) contagion software.
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There is more to a ROM than just the luncher, but sure, changing the launcher to something etter designed can improve things a little bit. It's just not a complete solution.
 
Still on iphone 6 with 128gb for me (9.3.5). I don't play games on it, all i need is the storage for music, photos, etc.

So what if someone wants to spend 1K USD on a phone each year...that's something they value. Someone else probably spends 1K on other things annually (gym/crossfit (me) each year because I like and value that more than a phone. Everybody is different, no right or wrong here. Just what you want and can afford.
 
Android battery life really starts to plummet after 18 months in my experience. It's fine and dandy if you have a phone with a replaceable battery, but almost no current models allow that anymore.
I don't really care if I'm stuck on Marshmallow, but I do care about my phone dying 30% faster than it did last Fall.
 
I'm still using a HTC One M7. Not the coolest or fastest, but it doesn't everything required. BUt I'm not one of those people who live on my phone, so my needs is far less
 
I came to this conclusion early on. I still use an iPhone 5 that is nearing 5 years old and still gets updates.

Even the expensive Galaxy phones do not get updates 3 years down the road and they cost as much if not more than iPhones.
 
Still on my Galaxy 4s, Lolipop, last update was last fall I think. Runs great....no plans to replace it until it dies or has other issues.
 
I had a basic flip phone for 4 years till my wife decided to buy me an iphone 7 this past Christmas. Yes. my first smart phone. Unless it gets caught in a wood chipper I see no reason to not use this for the next 5+ years.
 
///AMG said:
I buy a new iPhone practically every year because I can and because its the device I use the most so I am ok with spending 1k~ every year on it. Considering this is the place where people routinely spend 2-3k on their computers every year I dont know why so many people are judgmental.
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Haha, a trolling post if I ever saw one :D

I spend an average of $500/year on my comp. Some years more, some less. My phone on the other had I bought for $400 when the Samsung G6 was the big Sammy thing to get. Haven't seen a need to upgrade since I can make my G5 work forever with swappable batteries (I've got 5 of them) and 128GB of MicroSD storage. Why would I want to spend a grand on phones each year. Frankly my comp gets 100x more use than my phone does.

It's great that you can afford to spend big $ on your toys - customers like yourself keeps Apple happy for sure. ;) My "old" Galaxy S5 since I can troll Trump on twitter with it just fine.
 
Apple might support older devices longer with OS updates, but key features are either disabled (not supported) or it runs very slow. I'm not so sure it's even an evil scheme by Apple to get you to upgrade - the OS has increased in complexity so it's not unrealistic that the newer software doesn't work well (if at all) on older devices.
I try to keep my phones for at least 2 years. They are a money pit. $600-800 every year or two? Not a bad business model for the vendors. It's not a good model for consumers. (Keeping in mind that no one is holding a gun to your head to buy a new shiny device.)
 
Monkey34 said:
Still on my Galaxy 4s, Lolipop, last update was last fall I think. Runs great....no plans to replace it until it dies or has other issues.
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:) That may take a really long time. Plenty of batteries, microsd cards and Android ROMS (7.1.1 is out there for it) are available to keep it working forever.
 
I usually get a phone every other year, usually by then it starts to run like crap or need constant charging. This trend of not easily replaceable batteries needs to die in a fire though.

Mostly I just want the better camera which is why I upgrade. I have a nice dslr but it is nice having a camera in my pocket at all times. I don't have any games on mine, err i think mario run might be on it, so a lot of the graphics stuff really doesn't mean much to me personally.
 
I used to change my phones pretty much every year or two, which is why I changed to the Edge plan on Verizon. But when I got my Note 4, I liked it so much, I probably would have kept it for 4 years, but alas came along the Pixel XL and the battery life on my Note 4 had become a little unnerving. If the Pixel XL keeps going along sturdily with the crazy battery life I get now, I don't envision switching for a while.
 
geok1ng said:
i was led to believe that older android phones do not received regular automatic and mandatoriy updates to avoid bricking them , while apple phones get mandatory and automatic upgrades designed specifically to brick them and force the luser to upgrade.

under android i have a short time window of automatic and mandatory upgrades and a bit longer time window of optional upgrades, and all of them can be reversed to a previous software. an apple luser will receive constant upgrades, automatic and mandatory, until one of them bricks their phone, and those upgrades can not be reversed.

i have a working lg optimus x2, running 4.2.1. not bad for a 2010/2011 phone. apple crap that old be bricked long ago.
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Apple doesn't do mandatory updates nor is it automatic unless the user sets it to automatic updates which isn't set to automatic by default.
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I did own a Galaxy S3 back in the day, and it was a great phone after I flashed a custom ROM to it.
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That is true for every Android device, regardless of who makes it. Even Nexus and Pixel devices become even better if you put a custom ROM on them because that allows for more control of most anything and everything including more customized kernels that offer higher performance overall with additional capabilities for tuning said performance to suit the end user. Of course, smartphones today are made for the lowest common denominator aka "your typical consumer" but those of us that practically refuse to use stock ROMs on any devices (including Nexus/Pixel hardware) know that today's pocket supercomputers are being strangled by the stock ROMs more often than not.

I knew a guy that bought a Pixel XL recently and was loving it till I got my hands on it and made a few tweaks - didn't even install a custom ROM on it - just a few tweaks like adjusting the window animation effects with the developer options and he thought I had done some strange magic to it, funny stuff. :D

Pure stock Android even on Nexus and Pixel devices is NOT the best performance the devices can offer, not even close, but it's more than enough for that average consumer which is all that such people care about.
 
This place is funny.

I said the exact thing when trying to justify the price of a new Pixel compared to iPhones and the fact of being "forced" to replace a phone every two years and everybody, specially the mods/authors here, jumped me with all kind of reasons as to why is ok to replace a perfectly working phone every two years.
 
I had my Note 4 for 2.5 years. I would still be using it, but it developed a problem with call audio not being output over the built in speaker...only through headphone or bluetooth...so I upgraded to the S8+ (was holding out for the Note 8, alas). The Note 4 was working perfectly fine for all of the tasks I needed it for.

My guess is my current phone wont last as long, due in large part to the non-replaceable battery. That's ok. I am leasing this one and will trade it in for a Note 8 or S9+ when those release.
 
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