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A new smartphone again? Rethink unhealthy culture of frequent upgrades
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this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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I feel that. I was rocking an S8 I got Black Friday 2017, but I finally had to upgrade in March to an S23. The battery just couldn't get through the day anymore and I didn't want to go through the hassle of swapping the battery myself. I couldn't ship it somewhere to get it done either as I use it for work purposes.
I was perfectly content with the S8, otherwise. I could have used it for another 5 years if the battery was easily swappable.
I'm hoping my S23 will last me another 5.5 years (I enabled battery save mode so it only charges to 85%, which is more than enough for me). And by that point, I hope Fairphone has a flagship that's good enough to switch to.
Using a phone that long is risky due to the lack of security updates, especially if you're using it for work. People not using phones longer is a problem, but the bigger issue is manufacturers killing support so quickly to force people into upgrading.
I recently upgraded after 5 years on an iPhone because it reached the end of its support cycle. I considered another iPhone because 5 years of support is great, but really didn't feel like paying another $1000+ for what is essentially the same phone I was already using, just with a different body. So I went with a used Pixel 7 on ebay and installed GrapheneOS on it, and I'm very happy with it. I'm getting the same 5 years of support, a more secure OS, and I'm recycling at the same time!