Yup agreed completely. Back in the early 2010s, when we went from 1GHz single core CPUs to 1.2GHz dual core CPUs while doubling the RAM, things were a lot more interesting cause you could actually feel the speed improvements between generations.
These days even a budget phone is gonna be more than enough for browsing your social media of choice, texting, calling and doing the basics which is all I need my phone to do. I’m planning on keeping my Pixel 6 until it either can’t hold a charge for long enough or it gets to slow for my liking, whichever comes first.
While my wallet is glad I don’t feel the need to upgrade so often, I do miss actually getting excited about the next generation of phones and looking forward to my next upgrade so I could marvel at the generational improvements.
You buy phones for other things than utility? About every 5-8 years until they break? I’m on my third phone since they came into existence, it can’t do much more than the second.
What I’m saying is that general performance has been pretty stagnant for years now, if you bought a flagship device 3 or 4 years ago then new devices aren’t much of an upgrade for everyday tasks.
ink it’s more that you don’t feel you actually need the improvements, because current phones are pretty damned good.
But there are still significant improvements IMO, cameras are still getting better, phones get better water and dust resistance, and the SOC still get better at conserving power while having high performance. Screens are getting better both in handling direct sunshine and conserve power with for instance variable refresh rates.
So development is significant if you like cameras, like carrying your phone no worries in bad weather, resisting even a completely soaked pocket, if you like playing games or multi task a lot. Or if you like the convenience of having an all day+ battery life.
If you like mid rangers, the advantages from last year top models are carrying down, and even budget phones are now getting OLED.
I’m very impressed about how much newer phones actually improve over last years models. I’m always thinking for sure it doesn’t get much better than this new premium model, because it’s freaking awesome cutting edge. And then when next year arrives they somehow manage to make it even better.
I understand perfectly if people consider their phone good enough, because they’ve been very good for a while now, but still the newer phones are clearly getting better in many ways.
Do you need it though? 3 years isn’t that long for a phone. 3 months ago I replaced my Samsung Galaxy S5 from 2014 for Fairphone 4, which I will keep to 2032+
I had android 13 on S5, I wont say it was smooth, but it was more than usable. I replaced it mostly because 2GB off RAM was starting to get on my nerves. I couldn’t have more than 2 apps open without it putting to sleep the previous one. Multitasking was not very good on such a old phone.
I cant imagine what could be wrong on 3 year old phone. If it is not broken just install LineageOS on it and you should be good to go.
People using an S21 (for example) obviously get a bigger jump compared to coming from an S23. It’s similar to upgrading PCs. Upgrading to every CPU generation doesn’t get you huge jumps in performance every time, but upgrading from Ryzen 2000 to 7000 (3 generations) is like night and day.
Sure, but we’re pretty far from the jumps of 10 years ago for the same amount of time between upgrade, that’s what I’m saying. Even Android itself was a good excuse to want an upgrade to have a device that supported the new version, these days I couldn’t tell you what has changed from 13 to 14 because it’s all shit I don’t use (and I don’t know anyone that does).
Are there still people that really care about phone releases? It feels like we’re at a point where the tech doesn’t improve enough to even bother…
Yup agreed completely. Back in the early 2010s, when we went from 1GHz single core CPUs to 1.2GHz dual core CPUs while doubling the RAM, things were a lot more interesting cause you could actually feel the speed improvements between generations.
These days even a budget phone is gonna be more than enough for browsing your social media of choice, texting, calling and doing the basics which is all I need my phone to do. I’m planning on keeping my Pixel 6 until it either can’t hold a charge for long enough or it gets to slow for my liking, whichever comes first.
While my wallet is glad I don’t feel the need to upgrade so often, I do miss actually getting excited about the next generation of phones and looking forward to my next upgrade so I could marvel at the generational improvements.
You buy phones for other things than utility? About every 5-8 years until they break? I’m on my third phone since they came into existence, it can’t do much more than the second.
What I’m saying is that general performance has been pretty stagnant for years now, if you bought a flagship device 3 or 4 years ago then new devices aren’t much of an upgrade for everyday tasks.
Flagship models aren’t worth it since about 2015. Except if a better camera sensor is worth 500$+ for you.
ink it’s more that you don’t feel you actually need the improvements, because current phones are pretty damned good.
But there are still significant improvements IMO, cameras are still getting better, phones get better water and dust resistance, and the SOC still get better at conserving power while having high performance. Screens are getting better both in handling direct sunshine and conserve power with for instance variable refresh rates.
So development is significant if you like cameras, like carrying your phone no worries in bad weather, resisting even a completely soaked pocket, if you like playing games or multi task a lot. Or if you like the convenience of having an all day+ battery life.
If you like mid rangers, the advantages from last year top models are carrying down, and even budget phones are now getting OLED.
I’m very impressed about how much newer phones actually improve over last years models. I’m always thinking for sure it doesn’t get much better than this new premium model, because it’s freaking awesome cutting edge. And then when next year arrives they somehow manage to make it even better.
I understand perfectly if people consider their phone good enough, because they’ve been very good for a while now, but still the newer phones are clearly getting better in many ways.
It’s still exciting if you’re looking for a specific upgrade.
I’m still on the Samsung Galaxy S20+ (2020) so I’m excited for the latest phone.
or you can wait 12 months for the S25 ?
Do you need it though? 3 years isn’t that long for a phone. 3 months ago I replaced my Samsung Galaxy S5 from 2014 for Fairphone 4, which I will keep to 2032+
It won’t get the latest Android OS update and it’s also starting to lag a bit
I had android 13 on S5, I wont say it was smooth, but it was more than usable. I replaced it mostly because 2GB off RAM was starting to get on my nerves. I couldn’t have more than 2 apps open without it putting to sleep the previous one. Multitasking was not very good on such a old phone.
I cant imagine what could be wrong on 3 year old phone. If it is not broken just install LineageOS on it and you should be good to go.
But is it so slow that you feel like it needs to be replaced?
People using an S21 (for example) obviously get a bigger jump compared to coming from an S23. It’s similar to upgrading PCs. Upgrading to every CPU generation doesn’t get you huge jumps in performance every time, but upgrading from Ryzen 2000 to 7000 (3 generations) is like night and day.
Sure, but we’re pretty far from the jumps of 10 years ago for the same amount of time between upgrade, that’s what I’m saying. Even Android itself was a good excuse to want an upgrade to have a device that supported the new version, these days I couldn’t tell you what has changed from 13 to 14 because it’s all shit I don’t use (and I don’t know anyone that does).