HN Explorer

Ask HN: What's the main block to your smartphone longevity?

3 points by maxwellito ↗ HN
Over the years I realised that we all have different reasons to replace our smarphones. I was curious to hear what could make a change in their longevity. These devices have an environmental impact during their production, it's important to use them as long as possible. Apple deciding to bring iOS 15 on the iPhone 6S is problably one best ecological move they could do (hoping the perfs will be fine).

So, what was the reason to replace your previous smartphone?

Too slow? Battery life? Deprecated software? Wanting shining new specs/features? Costly repairs?

6 comments

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client4
I'd still be using my iPhone 5s if I could freeze the software (or load my own OS) and replace the battery every 2 years. My most recent update to a One Plus 9 Pro from a Pixel 2 was driven by screen clarity, wireless charging, upgraded camera, and waterproof rating.

The iPhone 5s with wired headphones is still my peak phone.

maxwellito
I completely understand. However why switching on Android? It seems like the iPhone SE (1st gen) would be perfect fit for you.
client4
I had a 2011 Macbook Air and the iPhone 5S and really enjoyed the combo, however as the years passed OSX and iOS felt like they were being intentionally hobbled for planned obsolescence. I moved over to Fedora Workstation and the Pixel 2 and haven't looked back. I'm still a little uneasy putting all my eggs in the Google basket, but I try to keep local backups and could move my email to Fastmail in a jiffy if I needed to. I'm keeping my eye on the Pinephone, but currently I'm in too deep with Gmail/Youtube/Keep/Drive to justify moving to a low-spec phone.

As an aside, I want Google's killer new app to be customer service. It feels like their current goal is to have ML/DL handle all their support, but if they made it so paying customers could reach a domestic person within 5-10 minutes my confidence in them would go up 80% .... also it would be nice to have a 1-month grace period for full account download for suspended accounts, no matter the reason. There are too many stories of people losing permanent access to documents/photos/emails without any ability to get them back.

jmhyer123
I have a Pixel 3. It's the first phone I've truly felt I could live with beyond it's 2 year expected life because the OS is still fast and responsive, the battery still holds a charge and it lasts all day on a single charge. Being water proof definitely helps too. The phone still gets Android OS updates so I don't feel like I'm missing out on features or security. The only reason I'll be upgrading soon is the hardware buttons are failing. The volume up button gets stuck and the power button will occasionally get stuck as well putting the phone in a reboot cycle that's hard to break out of. I'm not sure if this is an issue from wear or if it got dropped on the buttons (I have kids, they're pretty gentle with devices but accidents have been known to happen). I've gotten around the issue with an app that remaps the buttons so if they get stuck held down it just doesn't do anything. The trade off is I have to use the Accessibility tools to change the volume or power off the device, but the tools are really well integrated with the OS (on the Pixel 3, at least) that it hasn't been much of an annoyance at all.

Prior devices were mostly Samsung Galaxy models, the Samsung flavor of Android was terribly slow and consistently got worse as you approached that 2 year mark. The plastic portions of the housing always managed to accumulate chips and cracks especially on the corners and even with screen protectors install the glass would manage to crack at the slightest bump or drop. The OS was already out of date before I bought it and it rarely got updates, if it did it was months after the Android OS release and usually made the device perform worse.

lmilcin
For me this is OS updates or want for new features not available on my phone.

I generally take good care of devices. My Pixel 2XL (bought on the day it became available) still looks like new and cleaned up has not a single scratch and could easily pretend to be new if somebody didn't know better.

I have upgraded to Pixel 2XL from my previous phone to get Bluetooth 5 which at the time I wanted to use for some of my designs (I do hobby electronics).

smackeyacky
In order of the death of my smartphones:

1. Battery swole and no longer fitted in the case. Replacement made no financial sense. Early motorola.

2. Physical damage (dropped on concrete) not economical to repair. Used it until damage accumulated to where the touchscreen became unresponsive. Motorola defy.

3. Physical damage, unrepairable (phone was dropped in a sheep pen, got trodden on). Samsung xperia mini.

4. Battery life became so short phone was unuseable. Not economic to repair (HTC One M8)

5. Not dead yet, samsung galaxy s8, has had one screen replacement due to physical damage but i elected to get it fixed.