I can’t imagine spending $1000 on a phone every year now. They’re just all the same and even the $300 phones perform just as well as the flagships. Upgrades are so minimal it seems crazy to me that you’d spend so much. I used to be a much bigger phone enthusiast but I think things have changed in the last 3 years or so.
I had my OG Pixel from launch until this month. Upgraded to an Oppo A series but sent it back and got a Nokia 7.2. Less than $300, suits me just fine.
I think you are correct for most aspects these days. We have reached peak smartphone. The only differentiators now are camera and AI features.
For a few years I was updating almost annually with special upgrades through carriers. iPhone8 is the first one that I bought outright and lets say that buying a phone definitely changes things… I’m still sporting the 8 and don’t feel the need to upgrade.
Over the last few years I’ve felt more inclined to make my tech last as opposed to jumping on the newest release. Daily driver laptop is a 2014 MBP, iPhone8 is now into its 3rd year.
Completely agree. Once I started buying phones outright, instead of getting them through the carrier payment plan, my view changed as well. There is a larger sense of investment, kind of like buying versus leasing a car. I think this combined with the fact that smart phones are making big leaps and bounds like they used to lead me to keeping my phone longer. 18 months is still my record though.
Yeah, we are currently retiring my wife’s 2010 Sony Vaio Core i7 laptop (well, my old one, her 2010 Sony Vaio Core i3 was retired in 2016, when I got an HP Spectre x360) and she will share the x360 with me. I retired my 2007 Core2Quad Q6600 PC in 2017 and I use its replacement (AMD Ryzen 1700) most of the time and rarely turn on the HP, hence my wife taking it over.
I’m contemplating using the Sonys as Linux servers.
I am on a 2 year cycle
My Pixel 2XL died a few months ago, I got a Motorola G7 Power as a stop gap while waiting for the Pixel 4XL to start shipping. With the Motorola in hand, waiting for the end of November sales easier.
I had 2 Sony Xperias before the 2XL and left Sony due to their slow upgrade cycle, nice phone with good screens
I keep using my iphone as long as it is working and doing what I expect of it. I am on a prepaid contract so I buy my phones used from Gazelle.com. So I am on my third phone from them and this one is an iphone 7. I still have my iphone 6 next to me as a back up and emergency. Since not everything gets backed up and transfers to the new phone I keep mine as long as they are still working. So for me it is usually 3 or more years before a change is made.
Randy
Once I’m not getting security updates, it’s over :-). Or if some killer feature that I have to have comes along. Latest feature that I had to have was a “bezel-less” phone. Love having a much larger screen on the same size “fits in my pocket” phone.
Other than that, I’ll hold onto a phone until it dies :-).