this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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609
A new smartphone again? Rethink unhealthy culture of frequent upgrades (www.straitstimes.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
265 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

SO. MUCH. THIS.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Smartphones have been "good enough" for a while now. Enough power and battery to do all the things needed for enough time before running out of battery.

IMHO there are 2 reasons we still regularly upgrade.

  1. "Obsolescence" wether it would be perceived new hardware features or just new software not being available
  2. Use/breakage (I include batteries dying in that) with no reasonable way to replace parts

I've had a few phones over the years some of them I "legitimately" just broke (one had a cracked mb after a bike accident) I broke my second to last phone trying to replace the battery (thought I would be able to, broke the screen). The fact that everything is glued down and made to not be replaceable irked me so much that my current phone is a Fairphone. Replacing the battery takes 1 minute and requires no tools. Replacing the screen takes like 5 min and 8 screws. I plan on using this phone for at least 5 years more if possible. But I understand not everybody can shell out 600 dollars for an "OK" phone.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

It's actually planned obsolescence by phone companies pushing updates that artificially cripple our phones and making us believe that they are becoming worthless. Every single phone will slow down over time, even if you reset the whole thing to clear out whatever you've installed. Sure, you're going to need a new phone eventually when software advances past the technical limits of your device, but that's not what's happening; nothing has changed that much since you bought your phone but suddenly your phone is slow and not working nearly as well and the only thing to "fix" it is to buy a new phone.

It's all a scam to make us all carry around tracking devices and to spy on us. Phones are garbage and belong in the trash can.