I use my phone a fair bit, and really notice the difference between higher spec and lower spec phones these days. The lower spec ones feel sluggish to me now.

I think it's one of those things that's personal. I buy second hand partly because I feel bad about all the e-waste and try not to contribute, but when I was buying new I spent the same amount for a worse phone so I think it has paid off.

I don't get new phones very often, every 5 years or so if possible. I got a new phone recently not because I needed it, but because we wanted spares for the kids to use for minecraft on long car trips and that sort of thing. We don't have tablets, this sort of serves that purpose. It's the first time I can remember buying a phone when my last one wasn't dead or near to it. Although I couldn't take phone calls because everyone said they couldn't hear me or I sounded muffled.

Nevertheless, my old phone was 4 years old (I've had it for 3). I'm hoping it will last a few more with the reduced usage. It was also an excuse to get a Pixel to install GrapheneOS on.

[–] eagleeyedtiger 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That’s a good run. I think I’m going to hit my 6th year soon with the S9+. It’s one of the only phones I bought on release.

I used to love changing phones, I’ve jumped around from Motorola, Samsung, one of the Nexus phones, Sony, Oneplus. I enjoyed messing around flashing custom roms, but I can’t be bothered with that any more.

In what area do you notice the performance differences the most?

[–] Dave 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

The obvious answer is games. The kids play minecraft, which is probably the most demanding thing played on my phone.

The next is the camera. Phones often do some level of post processing, which the phone can struggle with. I've had phones in the past that you can only take one photo every 2 seconds or so, which seems plenty but then you miss the one good time when all the kids were looking at the camera at the same time.

And depending on what level of phone you go for, lower end phones feel sluggish, often very sluggish. Higher end phones just feel nicer to use, smoother scrolling, quicker when you tap things, etc. However, that doesn't mean they aren't perfectly usable, just that they feel sluggish in comparison.

Battery life can also vary wildly, but if you aren't using location tracking automation, watching Netflix, or taking lots of photos then the battery of most phones probably lasts plenty.