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Comment by teruakohatu | Hacker News Reader

I am pleased the Note is back, but at least the prices being asked in New Zealand are just crazy. It is selling for 14% more than a M1 MacBook Air.

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It's insane. I just got my self a new PC with top of the line specs (without a new GFX card, getting that when prices come down) for around 2k that will last me 10 years. But a phone I purchase for almost the same price will last me maybe 2-3 years until the battery is toast and I start having software issues.

People justify it by the fact that you use your phone all day, ever day but I would say I use my PC way more than my phone.

These phones should be able to push 4 years in fair condition between the software support assurances, larger batteries, longer battery life, and higher efficiency.

In any case, it’s apples to oranges. I can use any old junker for a desktop but a high end phone still means very practical things like longer battery life, longer support assurances, and maybe a handful of exclusives (Dex, full galaxy watch support, uwb tags, etc). The average person is far more likely to notice the difference between a cheap and expensive phone compared to a cheap and expensive computer. Samsung charges what it does because they can because they’re aware that Apple is the only company that offers the whole “package” the way they do and they’re just as expensive.

More and more people switch to midrange and budget phones every year all the same.

But with Apple, you get 6+ years of OS updates and support. The latest version of iOS runs on iPhone 6S released in 2016. Samsung recently started promising “at least 4 years” of security updates, but don’t expect that 4 year old device to get the latest Android OS.

4 OS generations I believe.

At 3.5 years since release, my brother's Note 10 was just upgraded to Android 11 - a major upgrade which will extend the life of the phone also quite literally thanks to Lenovo style charging limits.

The Note 10 was released in August 2019. By Apple standards getting a major OS upgrade at this point is nothing exceptional however in the Android world it's a stand out - and is also proof of Samsung's claim.

(Lenovo let me limit the max charge % many a year ago on my X1 Carbon, I've been wondering why phone manufacturers have lagged behind on this. Here is locked to 85% vs Lenovo's more flexible configuration).

This phone is 5 years security updates, 4 years OS updates. Brand new policy by Samsung.

Agreed. I generally buy the previous model of phones, and flash something like lineageos when it goes out of support. I aim to get at least 5 years out of a phone (currently on year 4 and still going strong).

Phones have gotten so expensive I don't dare to not have mine wrapped in some protective case. Doesn't help that my current phone is really slippery. I never get to enjoy the "mm thickness saved" the companies brag about, so why bother.

It seems like you're still enjoying the "mm thickness saved" unless the prices of older phones were so low that damaging them was of no real consequence to you, making cases worthless. Those devices were often thicker but still required cases to prevent scuffs, scratches, and cracks. If anything, their displays were far softer and easily scuffed.

Otter Box!

Just gravity-checked my Note10+ getting out of a van on pavement.

No worries.

That's just flagship phones these days. An iPhone 13 Pro Max is more expensive than an M1 MBA too. Even the regular Pro is the same price. In the US too.

It's got 12GB of memory; my own S21 Ultra has 16. It's powerful enough to perform as an laptop of kinds with DeX, in a much tighter form factor, with far better cameras - also a high resolution display, so it's not a completely unfair pricing.

In Italy is the same price as an M1 Macbook Air

How much?

NZ$1999 for Ultra, verses NZ$1750 for base MacBook Air.

That should be about €1170 which seems in line with prices in the EU (for the 128GB model). The 1TB model is listed at €1700.

Needless to say: I won't buy.

Back in the "old" days (a couple of years ago) you could buy the base model and insert the 1tb MicroSD card from your old phone into the new one.

Back in the old days you could take out your battery, too. Technology is changing, and in some ways it's definitely not for the better.

I had a Samsung Galaxy S5 a very long time ago and the expandability was very impressive. You could plug in headphones, a microSD card and get new batteries for it. The only real thing I didn't like about it was Samsung's TouchWiz skin, however I am sure that could have been fixed with an alternative ROM, especially given the popularity of the device.

It's a real shame that companies are tying perfectly working phones to old degrading technology.

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