Sharing this as I thought some of the comments are interesting
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1930001
Other than your carrier give it for free or cheap, I don’t really see the reason why should you buy new phone. I’ve been using Redmi Note 9 for past 3 years and recently got my had on Poco F5. I don’t see the point of my ‘upgrade’. I sold it and come back to my Note 9. Gaming? Most of them are p2w or microtransaction garbage or just gimped version of its PC/Console counterpart. I mean, $400 still get you PS4, TV and Switch if you don’t mind buying used. At least here where I live. Storage? Dude, newer phone wont even let you have SD Card. Features? Well, all I see is newer phones take more features than it adds. Headphone jack, more ads, and repairability are to name a few. Battery? Just replace them. However, my Note 9 still get through day with one 80% charge in the dawn. Which takes 1 hour.
I am genuinely curious why newer phone always selling like hot cakes. Since there’s virtually no difference between 4gb of RAM and 12gb of RAM, or 12mp camera and 100mp camera on phone.
I live in the EU and here people don’t often upgrade phones. This might be a US thing.
If I were to guess it’s the average user who upgrades all the time because the carrier offers it and after 2 years they are bored with the phone. Some also think that tech gets old and must be updated often.
Tech enthusiasts know it’s not true but the average user has no idea. Plus there are iPhone users who just want the status of having the latest phone.
Simple answer: There isn’t much of a point these days. Phones are quite capable to run for years. The big hurdle has been security updates, with OEM’s cutting off models soon after launch.
For comparison, the Fairphone3 has received security updates for 7 years and the OS has been updated from 9 at launch to 13 currently.