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Regular People Buying High Prices Phones

PhilipX20

PhilipX20

Android Enthusiast
Okay, I'm a bit of an Android geek that wants a phone/tablet that does its job and doesn't cost me too much, I got that (Geotel Note 4G and Samsung Galaxy Tab S2) but then I see people on deal websites going on about buying the newest phone because.. it's trendy? I dunno, maybe you fellas can explain that.

The iPhone crowd is pretty much the same, they buy a $1k phone yearly and only use it for Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, listen to music, call and text.

I mean, if these people actually meant to use the phones for heavy and technical apps that'd be understandable they'd want the newest and most powerful in the market though that doesn't appear to be the case, at all.

Anyway, I'm happy with my set-up and whenever I have to get used to a new phone, I usually take a while to set it as my previous one was (same launcher, same apps, same organization, etc, etc).
 
It's early-adopter syndrome. Price only recently became a thing for early-adopters. OEMs used to give price breaks for their new untested tech. Now... I don't know. Maybe they feel someone who spent so much would be embarrassed to post what they really think about paying so much for something that didn't work as advertised?
 
I am guilty of buying a flagship or two, but not for $1k. That leaves me scratching my head. A smart phone has an anticipated life of maybe two years, but is considered out of date after only one. 18 months used to be the upgrade cycle for most carriers who would lock you in by subsidizing a $400 phone. Now you have to buy the phone outright, plus the plan from the carrier.

Are smartphones that important or are consumers that gullible?
 
dontpanicbobby said:
I thitk we are only a gyroscope away from an autonomous electric bicyle run from a phone for point to point guidance.
You'd still have to peddle on steep hills though. The beauty is pedaling charges the battery.
Click to expand...

I think the next big thing will be the autonomous public shared segway or hoverboard, with full social network integration of course.
 
I jumped off the flagship game. I'm running a Moto X4 unlocked that I got for $330 on MintSim 5GB plan (5GB LTE, 3G unlimited after that) that runs on T-MO for $240 / year (year, YEAR) and in case you missed it I'm paying only $20 / month for my 4G LTE service with unlimited data (see note above, 5GB LTE), unlimited voice, and unlimited texts.

The amount I'm saving on service I can buy a pretty good phone with annually. So long as my phone does the stuff I want it to do, I'm fine with keeping it for 2-3 years. The same methodology across the 4 phones I keep active and I'm saving big time money and I"m noticing it in other toys I'm much more interested in and would much rather spend my hard earned money on. Plus, I still have a pretty good phone.

Someone said it earlier, I'm not spending a grand on a fashion item.
 
Unforgiven said:
I'm not spending a grand on a fashion item.
Click to expand...

I can't remember the first, last or anytime I ever heard or participated in a conversation about a phone's 'style'. Sure, I hear "is that the new [brand] phone?" all the time, but then everyone wants to see what it a DO, not what it looks like. Frankly, they all pretty much look the same any more.
 
There has been quite a bit of discussion at length about notches, bezels, thinness, glass backs, etc, those all might might be considered 'style' or 'fashion'?

There's a thread running on AF at the moment talking about the colour of Samsung S-pens, that's definitely style or fashion rather than something technical.. :D
 
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It might be: shatter resistant materials tend to be soft, and scratch resistant materials brittle. So there's a trade off there. A screen the can neither be scratched nor shattered doesn't exist.

In fact Gorilla Glass 5 scratches easier than 4, presumably in an effort to reduce chance of breaking (but still plenty of phones using it have shattered).
 
I am still in the flagship game, though I doubt anyone would call the Pixel 2 (regular size) a fashion item ;). But my phones average 4 years or more, so the extended software support is worth something to me. And it's still well short of 1k.

I must admit though that there are plenty of midrange phones now that I would consider, so who knows next time.
 
I own a very unpopular but cheap phone. But it has a good price to performance ratio. But I regret buying it because it isn't used by too many people and doesn't even have a custom rom and stuff like that...


But I think it's a good phone for people who are not tech savvy...
 
I like new shiny things. I can't help it. BUT my budget is $500 max. I waited for the Essential to go on sale before I got it. I sell (and sometimes even get paid!!) my 'old' phones to the peeps on my plan so there's that. My requirements are vanilla Android and NFC, it's the NFC that seems to drive the price up, most budget phones don't have that. And Verizon, has to work on their network so that eliminates a lot. But yeah, shiny gets me every time, it's a problem. I swear I'm keeping the Essential forever though!!
 
Not so much flagship game - I go by storage and speed of use. Trouble is, that's usually a flagship phone.

It takes over 20 minutes to download a database for Ibird Pro over wifi I download as I bird where there is no phone signal and I would like to have the storage and speed open before the damn bird flies away. Other nature apps also have large databases. So do astronomy apps. Astronomy apps will increase in size as developer adds more lists of things to see like asteroids and comets. Those do not have to be downloaded by all but just by those who do observe those objects.

Camera also matters.
 
I was seriously thinking about a Red Hydrogen One phone but then I realized this is a Director's phone. If I was into producing videos or movies it would be a must have. If Speilberg isn't an Apple guy he'll probably get one. Heck even if he is he'll probably get one. I'm going to start calling it the "Hollywood Special".
 
I only got the S8+ as a gift.

I also have a V20 as a backup phone (Used/Refurb - for $149 on Ebay).

Had I not gotten the S8+, I would have been perfectly happy with the v20.

And I still have my "budget" ZTE Zmax Pro.

I will be keeping my S8+ probably for a while until the battery dies
 
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