Android @lemdro.id

10mo ago

Why I refuse to upgrade - 8 minutes video explaining why it's not that interesting to upgrade phones nowadays

106 comments

I'd like replaceable batteries to come back.
- Every single phone upgrade since 2012 was because the battery would get so bad, it lasts less than an hour.
  And before someone goes, "Ah try ifixit", the cost of the replacement parts was as much or more than just getting another used phone from like swappa. I've done the financial math countless times.
  I miss buying batteries for like $20 and watching the phone become new again.
  
  Just buy batteries from aliexpress, ebay...
- I as well. At the very least, we need some fucking differences in the market. Every phone doesn't have to be the same. Imagine the car market if all we could buy were Chrysler 300s. It looks sleek and nice but will crap out on you in a couple years and doesn't really fit in well with your career as a general contractor. When it dies, you have to go buy another one and start the cycle over.
- My Fairphone does, and I have already purchased a batter for 35 euros, which I keep in my drawer. The phone is now just over 3 years old, probably in a year or so I will replace it. I am aiming for at least 6-7 years lifespan.
- That's why I'm eyeing to get a Fairphone as soon as my current phone breaks
- So say we all.
  Been waiting to use that ;-)

It seems like each new version of Android locks down the file system in some new way that breaks a core part of something I do, so I actively don't want to upgrade.
I can't root my phone because I need my banking apps readily avaliable right now.
- I'm still bitter about USB mass storage being removed for only MTP. MTP sucks, any time I use it for more than a few small files it always ends up dying partway through.
  
  Yea, don't waste time with MTP. It's a hack to enable some access. It's always been unstable.
  Use some kind of network sync tool instead. Syncthing, Resilio Sync, Foldersync, etc.
- That's why I stick with Android 12, all my banking apps work just fine with magisk's DenyList. Heard that's getting tricky on 13 or 14.
  And I absolutely need root to add system-wide adblocking and security features like Ice Box and Storage Isolation.
  
  I must be very lucky, but I have never been annoyed at something that Google does since 2020 (the year I got an Android phone and started to root).
  Hail, AdAway and Swift Backup already improve my Android experience completely.
- This is why I've ended up keeping my Pixel 4 on Android 10. I've made backups and flashed the latest versions, only to come back because every time they've broken something I need the phone to do.
  It makes me glad that this is a secondary phone because I can happily keep it on this ancient version of Android and not give a shit about the security.

Yo, write better titles. I thought this was a video about how they didn't want to upgrade to Android 15 or something. But it's not. It's just about not buying a new phone every two years 😆 In my opinion buying a new replacement isn't 'upgrading'.
- Buying a new replacement totally is upgrading though.
  That's why it's so rare to find phones with easily changeable batteries as most phones are like new if you just replace that.
- Personally, although the terms have become increasingly blurred over the years, I refer to changing to a new version of software (including an OS, and both ideally with some improvements) as updating it rather than upgrading.
  I reserve upgrade more for changes of hardware with some form of improvement over its predecessor. I'd suspect I may not be alone in this, but I dunno how common it may be. When switching to a mix of both, I simply say I'm getting a new [insert specific device depending on which].
  Although I'd hesitate to call many new phones an all-around upgrade when they're either removing features (headphone jack/expandable storage) or getting more cumbersome to hold (can you even call some modern phones a handset anymore?).
  
  I agree with your terminology - updating is for often small incremental software patches.
  Upgrade would be a complete program overhaul, or more commonly in my use of it, a change to a newer, better physical product.
- Difference between updating and upgrading
  
  Why I refuse to upgrade to a new phone - 8 minutes video explaining why it's not that interesting to ~~upgrade~~ buy new phones nowadays
  I think that'd fit better.
  But you all made me look it up on Wikipedia: "Upgrading is the process of replacing a product with a newer version of the same product. In computing and consumer electronics an upgrade is generally a replacement of hardware, software or firmware with a newer or better version, in order to bring the system up to date or to improve its characteristics."
  I'm confused. Maybe because so many people use those terms wrongly. And I suspected them doing that. But I think I'd still like to refuse using the same term for describing upgrading a computer with an additional $35 RAM stick and buying a new $2.500 gaming rig.
- You upgrade your phone when you can no longer use the previous one. What other reason would there be? They're all the same anyway.
  
  10+ years ago, it was very common to get an upgrade to your phone ever two years (or less). And at the time, there was a lot more variability in phones. And I mean in more than just battery life, storage capacity, camera quality, processor, etc. There used to be a variety of form factors to consider, sizes, genuinely different features and functionalities. The iPhone came about in 2009, and other smart phones soon followed, but even then there were still phones with physical keyboards, digital keyboards with stylus typing, flip phones, etc. Once smart phones completely dominated the market and all the manufacturers started just copying each other's features and designs, eventually we got to the status quo of today where they're all essentially the same. The only major difference now is the OS, and that's largely just down to iOS vs Android.
  
  That's kind of the point. There was a time in the 2010s when each new device could do something that they couldn't previously do. But it seems like the market has figured out what people want from their phones and that's what they are getting now.
- I'm still on 13 just because I didn't see any point to upgrade.
  
  I mean, I don't see the point in not upgrading when your device supports it. The interface pretty much stays the same at this point, and they usually do improve on security, and other background stuff.

Why I don't watch YouTube videos -
It's 8 minutes long and contains less than a minute's worth of information, and is a complete waste of time
- We'll get an AI to caption and then summarise the transcript of the video that's 8 mins long because the user (understandably) wanted to monetize the video.
  I wonder if this was Google's plan all along ...
  
  An AI that can turn YouTube videos into written articles? Take My Money! I have been wanting this for a long time, I far far prefer stuff in writing to videos, I dont take information from audio/video anything like as well

I upgrade less than I used to, and I only do mid-range devices now, like the Pixel A series or Motorola G series. That kind of bracket. I'm just going to install Lineage OS on it anyway and it works fine so why pay more when I don't need that.
- You can just buy a used phone too. An older pro is going to be better than the new A. Same price too.
  
  But worse battery life.

All new phones are too fucking big.
- Counterpoint: my eyes are not what they used to be 20 years ago and 6,5...7" screens hit the sweet spot for useability. Especially since bezels are super thin these days so a 6,7" phone today is barely larger in total dimensions than a 5,5" phone 6 or 7 years ago.
- Pixel 4a checking in. 🙂
  
  My current phone, actually. I've been looking for newer at the same size or less, and it's pissing me off.
- This. Had to replace my trusted s10e. Picked the smallest I could get, which was an s23. It's too big.
- I wish Sony will bring back the XZ1C but with updated internals. Everything else can remain, even the 720p screen.

I finally upgraded my phone after 7 years. I had trouble picking out a phone that didn't remove everything... no headphone jack, no sd card slot and we're supposed to call that an upgrade? (What I got still has those thankfully)
- But it's got lidar so you can jack off hands-free by gesturing a jerking motion!
- Same feeling. They are expensive and miss stuff I currently have or they are too big
  
  Yeah. I paid about 650USD (900CAD) knowing I'd keep this for a few years. I'm still not going to put it on financing.

I run GrapheneOS.
I told myself that my Pixel 8 pro will be enough for a bunch of years. That is, until I went on a trip with it. Now I feel like my Pixel 7 was better than the P8P is, with just as good of a camera with better battery life.
I'm glad I kept the p7 as a burner, because I may just make it my prime phone. I only upgraded on the prospect of a long lasting phone and received the p7 for free..

I went from an OPPO find 5, to oneplus 1, then OnePlus 5, and now pixel7a. The OnePlus 1 was probably the only one I was impressed by and the others were just replacements. I don't plan on changing until Linux phones are less of a pain in the anoos or if the 7a gets totalled. I'm the family tech guy for a lot of people that always upgrade to the latest phone and nothing worthwhile ever happens in a decade of phones any more. If anything they get worse with more planned obsolescence and proprietary bullshit.

I upgrade when I kill my phone. There's just no other reason to do it otherwise
- Same. However I do work manual labor, so nothing too fancy lasts long.

Just wait till you break it to buy a new one, if you're lucky you'll be able to hold on to your phone long enough that it will feel like an actual upgrade instead just being new.
- I did that but lost my headphones jack with connected built in quad DAC, a reliable fingerprint reader mounted on the back of the phone, and front facing camera that wasn't crammed under my screen causing an annoying dead spot...
  
  A reliable, fast fingerprint reader that you can feel, where your index finger is naturally placed already when removing your phone from a pocket, so that you can effortlessly unlock the phone before you've even got it out.
  Not having to wake the screen to see whether the reader is, either reach awkwardly with the thumb of the hand holding the phone, or use a finger from the other hand, then press hard maybe three times until it works (with the added side effect of a bright flash of light at night).
  Why did they think this was better? Could we maybe have one on the edge, or the power button?
  
  I am responding to you on an LG V30 that I haven't been able to part with because of the things you mentioned.
  The battery life sucks and sometimes the fingerprint reader on the back doesn't work right but I can't bring myself to buy something new that doesn't have the features I want. It just feels like I'd be downgrading.
- Every 2.5 years for me. I usually get two generations back. My "newest phone" is a Pixel 6 from Oct 2021.
  Honestly it feels like a subscription service these days.

For me, it’s just the fact that phones… are phones. They all look the same, function the same, there’s just nothing new happening with them.
Sure, chips get better and faster, they’ll add another camera to it and fiddle with the dimensions a bit, but that’s not innovation. All phones look like boring rectangular slabs.
Back in the late 90’s, phones had way more variety and personality. Candybar, flip, even the sidetalkin’ taco that was the Nokia N-Gage. A Motorola Razr looked nothing like say, a Nokia or Sony Ericsson. And those were distinctly different from your Samsung or Mitsubishi phones (Yes, Mitsubishi made phones!).
I’d love it if we went back to more phone variety, but I fear the smartphone has effectively killed every other style. Most people wouldn’t ditch their big screen smartphone to go back to a small flip phone.
- Foldable phones are coming back. Innovation is there its just a lot slower, probably because releasing the same phone every year makes so much money.
  
  Well, while those flexible screen flip phones certainly look like neat tech, it’s not the same as the flip phones we used to have.
  And it’ll need a few more versions before I’m comfortable buying one. Those screens tend to be just a bit too fragile.
- I can't believe this page still exists
  https://sidetalking.com/
  
  Jesus, that’s a blast from the past for sure!
  It really was the thing everyone latched on to with the N-Gage. I actually still own a first gen model that I bought on release. It was actually pretty decent, both as a phone and the games it played. Of course, it never really took off, but I enjoyed using it.
  As for the sidetalking… I bought a headset for it to avoid that :D
- The Motorola Droid 2 was my first smartphone and I sorely miss that slide out keyboard with dpad.
  
  I’ve never had a Droid, but loved every other Motorola that I’ve owned. Including the original StarTac and Razr. They made some really nice phones over the years.

Do you really need a YouTube video for that?

I’m using an almost four year old iPhone 12 mini, with absolutely no desire to upgrade. I plan to use this phone until it’s a brick.
- I have pixel 3....works just fine. Except there are no more updates past Android 12 for this phone.
  Apps that I need, like okta verify now require Android 14. So I'm forced to upgrade.
  Just like others who had older iPads, then they call me asking why Chase app doesn't work and says they need an upgrade....but old iPads won't upgrade to the version needed.
  Planned obsolescence.... I hate tech nowadays. I want 90s back with dial up Internet and home built beige boxes
- I've been using a 12 Pro and if it wasn't for the version number in the name I wouldn't even be aware of its age. They are all so fast these days the battery dies long before it becomes too slow to use. If it wasn't for CarPlay and iMessage I'd absolutely use a flip phone with Android Go or something.

Upgrade when you feel it's time to upgrade, not because the latest and greatest just released again.
- I feel it's time to upgrade when the latest and greatest just released again.
  /s

iPhone XS Max, 2018. The only reason I might update is for the better camera. But this is marginal. I tend to buy one of the top line iPhone once in about 5 years, with enough memory. And they last long time. I might consider changing battery instead and get another 2 years… Apple is also super good with software updates on old hardware.
- Apple is also super good with software updates on old hardware.
  Except for that time they deliberately slowed down older phones with software updates so people would buy new phones.
  
  They deliberately slowed down phones with defective batteries to prevent them from randomly crashing. Which would cause a lot more people to complain than the phone being slower, but not turning off at 30%.

I only upgraded for the nicer camera. I have so many pictures that are blurry that I think springing for a little nicer camera is worth it. But yeah, the tech is pretty stagnant.

Since 2010, I've only gone through 4 phones. New phones seem to focus on better cameras which I don't use much.
- Same here. Whatever I have now is more than good enough. What I had before was good enough too

@Blaze I kept my last phone for about 5 years, and it was still quite usable when I left it. But I just lacked space, and I had to be picky even about the apps I needed. Now I plan on keeping the one I have until I no longer receive updates.

Let me give you a simpler answer than watching an 8 minute video - Money

AP telling me things are not interesting smells like clickbait.
Why the hell did that happen?
- A guy always testing new phones every month won't change his daily driver...not that exciting of a story given the access he has

It doesn't even have to be interesting. It's enough if it's not disgusting

I'm still using an iPhone 7. I might get an upgrade at some point because multiple things are broken and I don't really have space on the storage anymore, but I totally agree that you can live many years with the same phone without any problems.

Last couple upgrades was iPhone 7 -> 11 Pro -> 15 Pro. Each brought me something significant (FaceID, 120hz screen, magsafe, wireless charging, etc) along with a nice speed boost. I feel like the sweet spot for upgrading is 3-4 generations.

My last phone upgrade was about four years ago (Nokia 6 to Samsung A31) and that was only to try and get YouTube Music's shitty app to work properly (spoiler : it didnt). Broke the screen on it dropping it while trying to put a mask on, got that fixed (that was over two years ago). Its still going, and will keep it until it dies
I dont upgrade my phone because I'm interested in upgrading, I upgrade when I have to

106 comments