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Comment by pacavaca | Hacker News Reader

From what I hear from my fellow Android users, it's a common story. And yeah, it happens less for iPhone. My thinking is that partially it's a platform fragmentation to be blamed. As long as the phone is new, companies will be running perf tests for it, but it's physically not possible to rigorously test an app for 2+ years worth of Android devices. While in Apple ecosystem 2 years == just 2 devices. I'm an Android user from the inception and I observed this ~2 years trend for every one of my phones. My wife's iPhone 5s (not the strongest device by any means) seems to be still fine though.

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I'm still using a galaxy S6 without any complaints. It never had stellar battery life and still doesn't but I haven't found that to be a problem. Samsung gave a free wireless charger when I bought it and I have that on my desk which makes charging very easy.

I love how the new phones look but can't justify replacing a perfectly working phone.

I think replacing a not broken phone, at least to a flagship, is rarely a rational decision. People buying a flagship are buying a new toy and they want this toy to entertain them, give emotional satisfaction and show a little bit of "tomorrow". That's (in my opinion) is what the high price tag for. Essential tried to enter a high price territory from the first shot and just failed to impress. Otherwise, I bought a Nexus 5X for my mom last year and I think that was a pretty rational choice. It's cheap, performant and still supported by google. Absolutely no need to replace until she breaks it.

Even non-flagships are fine. I've had an LG Stylo now for 2 years which I bought used a few months after it came out for $100. Signal, Firefox, Pandora, etc all run fine on it, it doesn't have connectivity problems like any of my friend's Nexus 5x or 6p phones have, and at this point its a sub-$50 phone, so if it breaks, no sweat!

Compared to the Galaxy S4 I had prior to it, this Stylo was definitely a big upgrade. No more SIM not found errors, band 12 support, better battery life, for less than a quarter of what I paid for my Galaxy S4.

> Absolutely no need to replace until she breaks it.

Look up 'Nexus 5X Bootloop'. I had one before it started doing that. It's a common problem with that phone and it's predecessor, Nexus 5.

The throwaway culture that has come about with cellphones is both costly and really damaging to the environment. Poor software support, terrible "recycling" practices by carriers and OEMs, and purposeful defects to limit product lifespans.

Apple actually forces recyclers to shred old devices rather than allowing said hardware to be repaired or pulled apart for parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F66BapDvpU8

Very nasty process, super wasteful!

They aim to change that with their new project called Liam: https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/Liam_white_paper_Sept2...

It's a robot that can take apart and iPhone and separate its components for recycling.

Why not let the recyclers handle this? Apple building their own bespoke, unsupported solution isn't apt to end well. The recyclers already handling this hardware are happy to pull this hardware apart and reuse it.

From what I've heard from family who works at Apple, they're the king of duplication, every project has multiple teams doing the exact same thing, and the right hand has no clue what the left hand is doing. Secrecy is the core of their corporate culture, overriding everything else.

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