Can a Five Year Old Phone Compete Today? How Far has Android Come Since the LG V50?
Can a Five Year Old Phone Compete Today? How Far has Android Come Since the LG V50?
Well sure, a 5 year old phone will lose most of these performance comparisons against modern phones, but will it lose badly enough for consumers to care?
I wish my old phones would work that long. Performance usually isn't the problem. It's hardware degradation. Battery dying. Ports wearing out. Boot loops and crashing.
I'm still running my Galaxy s4 with LineageOS. It's on it's third battery but works good otherwise. Doesn't have the power of newer phones but all I need is a phone/email/text system, and the IR blaster is nice for controlling my tv/amp. I plan to run this thing until either it dies or I do.
Yup. It's a tough conversation getting people to repair instead of buy new. We have to keep pressure on politicians and industries. The increased software support windows from Google and Samsung at least plant a seed.
The problem is vendor support. As soon as a device stop receiving OS and baseband security patches, it becomes potentially insecure.
I'll extend that to parts support. Beyond accidents, batteries in typical daily use wear out beyond usable after 3-4 years. So vendor software and parts support.
Absolutely a concern, but it seems to be a part of the conversation now that support is something people care enough about for it to influence where they spend their money. For the tech savvier folks, and you'll see a bunch in here, folks are willing to hold on to a phone past its support window.
I have a few old phones that still work great. Yes Google might pull their support on the phone because it has an old version of android but you can always use fdroid or side load apps.
I have a couple of old phones here. A 10 year old phone that is used as a bedside alarm and flashlight when needed. The other is a 6 year old phone that is used as a practice device of loading custom ROMs and jail breaking purposes.
Keeping old tech out of landfills is the right way!
Today i was late to work because my phone died.
Today i will use an old phone for an alarm and simply leave it plugged in. Thanks for sharing!I use an old phone as a camera for my 3d printer as well. They can also be used to run octopi provided they have otg usb
According to my earliest photo taken, I got my current phone about 5,5 years ago. It still runs perfectly fine and I have yet to encounter performance problems on any app I have used. Haven't even used up more than 50% of its memory. The battery still holds the entire day. Why would I ever get another phone until it breaks? Granted, I don't play any games besides the occasional handheld emulation on long train rides and I'm on an outdated android version, that's not supported anymore I believe.
That's a GOOD run. Run that phone til the wheels fall off!
Phones were already far more powerful than what most people needed back then so I'm not surprised that, performance wise, they still hold up.
How much speed do you need to read lemmy?
Depends on the community /s
I would say we crossed over into TRUE overkill around the SD845. Even up to this year, our mid-rangers still haven't quite outpaced the 845.
My oneplus 7 Pro is almost 5 years old and it's still snappy and works just fine with what I want to do on it.
I've gone back to using my 7 Pro this week as the Fold 4 I upgraded to needs to be repaired only a year after I got it. It works perfectly fine still, and the popup camera is still popping up 4 years later. I had to flash Lineage OS on it to get Android 13 though since the last update OnePlus pushed out was Android 12 and I really disliked their new skin.
Same year as the V50! 2019 was a BANGER year. I think it's all been downhill since we transitioned to 5G...
One plus 3 reporting in. Same phone, two screen repairs later, is still hanging in there. It is staring to show signs of aging software, as a few apps no longer supports it, and is having slow load times.
The screen is cracked again, so next time it dies will be it's end as a screen repair is more costly than buying a used oneplus 7 instead.
OnePlus 3 to 8 devices were just brilliant. Excellent design at the time and very good processing power.
Still using a 6.5 years old iPhone 7. Can't fine a downside, still runs perfectly well. The only thing that needed a replacement is its battery. I hope it holds for another 4.5 years (with battery replacements).
I've been trying to get more of my family to do that. Swap the battery, and it's like a new phone again. Instead I have cousins sporting phones they really can't afford, because they wanted the newest PRO phone.
My Samsung s9+ with Evolver Android 13 custom rom (and duo sim) is still a very good phone. Amoled screen, good camera and battery life still over a day when setting the brightness not too high. Not a scratch on it too. I don't use it daily though as it is a very big phone, but I take it when going out or on holiday because the camera on my iPhone SE is crap and as you mention for gaming.
I have been repairing tons of these phones here in the Netherlands and it is just a very solid phone that is very easy to repair. The s10 for instance comes with a single board instead of sub and mainboard like the s8 and s9 series, so when something is wrong with a USB, like not charging or connecting to PC or the mic doesn't work the board get's scrapped for usable components and these components come back on refurfed boards that we get back from Samsung (those are often a pain in the ass prone to not pass the quality checks after repair).
I still use an iPad 2 for making music and as MIDI controller for the Home Studio, I just dislike to throw away perfectly good hardware, as is my s9+
Thanks for posting.
That's the mission right? Keep good tech out of landfills!
I'm using a v60 and really don't want to give it up. I'll probably try a battery swap before buying any of the new crap on the market.
Definitely look into a battery swap. If you really like what was unique to the V60, there is no direct replacement for an LG. It's rough.
Currently using a 4-year-old galaxy note 10 and I love it.
10+ here as well, and I bought mine on swappa used. Works just fine for me...why the hell do I want to carry around a 1k+ device in my pocket... especially one that's pretty fragile.
I use it because I broke my S22U and I'm too lazy to get if fixed :p
But rooted Lineage is soooo much better than oneUI
Note 10 is a CHAMP. I loved those devices that really tried to be "pocket laptops".
I was using my samsung S7 until the power button fell off a year and a half ago. Yes I would still be using it today if that didn't happen. I was still using it for like 6 months after too.
S7 was such an important year. Getting over the performance issues from the year prior, a big camera upgrade, replacing the microSD card slot. S7 was a CHAMP.
The power button also fell off my s7. Other than the buttons falling off and battery being poop the phone was in great shape.
Battery was fine on mine. Still lasted a day like it always did, I didn't really play games on it and only really played music and watched the odd YouTube video.
I'm still using a 4 year old Xiaomi Mi Max 3...
I never got to play with a Mi Max. It was a little mid-ranger right? Snapdragon 600-something?
Consumers will buy what they're told.
Seems like the marketing works yeah...
My current phone is 4 years and 3 months, remind me in 9 months and I'll tell you if it's still cool.
It's a date!
Great video Juan. Your last point about lazy reviewers is why you're the only phone reviewer (he does way more than review phones people) in my subscriptions. And as far as android content goes, it's only Android Faithful & In Depth Tech Reviews. It's frustrating seeing reviewers increasingly go the pay to play route and often not even disclosing the fact their "review" is really just a commercial.
I was hoping to see more recommendations in the comments but I'm sure that'll come in time.
A few more now for sure. Some good folks to follow, but not a LOT of people really test and benchmark like we used to.
I dunno man. My phone released in September of 2018 (I have it since April 2019) and it's still usable. Does the software experience suck? Yes, but the reason for that might not just be android 10, but rather that it is a Huawei phone.
Laughs in LG v10...
Maybe it IS time for a new phone!
THAT'S AN AMAZING RUN for a V10! Nicely done! My V10 still works, but I have been babying it, and I do not use it as a daily anymore. Well done!
My daily driver handset was released in 2014...
This is making me want to replace the battery and return to my Galaxy S6. My Note8 and S9 have more than enough processing power and I think most phones have had more than enough for a while. That's why I believe the manufacturers always have to try and sell the next gimmick. Outside of gaming I don't think we're waiting on the processor, but more waiting on storage. That's why adding SSDs to older PCs woke them up so much.
It's not about battery it's about android version. Those old phones don't support newer versions of android so the apps don't work right any longer. I would have kept my v20 if it would still support new android versions without having to root.
I'm using an LG K9 right now. Works ok, but I'd prefer a smaller screen
Been hearing that a LOT lately, folks wanting smaller phones again.
I made the mistake of buying an international V20 model at the beginning of 2018, which didn't have VoLTE capability. When they started shutting down 3g networks here it could no longer make phone calls. :( If it weren't for that I'd still be rocking it
Ugh that's rough. I LOVED the V20. What I wouldn't give for a modern version of that phone.