Ask HN: How about a modern phone that actually lasts? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How about a modern phone that actually lasts?

16 pointspipeline_peak51 comments

You probably remember there was a time when we weren't buying new phones every two years. And when we did, the improvements weren't as trivial as a fourth camera or falsely promised extended battery life, partially because we could actually replace the battery.

It would be so nice if there was an old school Nokia approach, something that lasts a long time and is actually durable because it's not a glass child's flip flop that needs to be covered in after market rubber at all costs.

A modern phone REALLY doesn't need that much, Android seems to be a lot more lenient than iOS with requirements. All these curved, bendable screens do nothing but adorn our 2007 darling rectangle.

Business is business, but I think there's a market for people concerned with all the waste these things produce and a well made one could tap into that, even if it was 30% more.

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This is kind of funny to me. I’m on an iPhone 8 from October 2017, so it’s just a hair shy of 5 years. I haven’t had a case or screen protector on it for at least the last 4 years. It still runs the latest iOS version. As someone who is concerned about waste, I just didn’t buy a new phone every 2 years, and it’s working out okay for me.

I'm planning to get a new battery for my iPhone X sometime soon but otherwise, yep, I'm gonna run this phone into the ground before I replace it and I'll be getting updates the entire way there, which is more than many (too many) Android flagships can say. I'm past the days of wanting to customize every little thing in my phone.

I'm also using a 5 year old Iphone 8 from 2017, works fine, just replaced the battery this year. So I guess buy an Iphone and avoid android phones based on what you've found.

I was similar til last fall, had an iPhone 7 plus (in a case cuz without its kinda slippery) and upgraded to a 12 because the cameras are much better and I didn’t want to take a separate camera on vacations. I think we reached the ceiling on new features being compelling enough for frequent upgrades a few years ago.

My iphone6 works perfectly though stuck at IOS 12.5. Wouldnt be a problem except for those stupid developers that decide only IOS13 + is good enough for them

I did the same, but unfortunately iOS 13 added a lot of APIs that are indispensable for modern iOS development. My own apps are supporting iOS 9.3 though, it’s a good feeling giving people the option to dedicate their obsolete devices to just one function, forever.

My current phone is a major brand flagship from 2016 (bought in 2016), the one that that one replaced was probably older than that at the time.

Your question seems to start from a wrong premise, maybe ask yourself why you replace phones every two years for (according to you, minor) feature upgrades.

the most valid justification in OP’s post was (IMO) the non-replaceable batteries, since battery capacity decreases noticeably over a 6 year timespan.

does your phone have a replaceable battery, or have you just not found it to be a deal-breaker?

i upgraded from a 2016 SE to the iphone 13 mini last year, in largest part because it would die after like 2 hours of casual web browsing (even with ads disabled/etc). one major feature of the newer iphones is the clip-on battery packs. not as good as replacing the interior battery, but means i can get expect more than 5 years of life from this one without hacking it too much.

Not easily, unfortunately, and battery performance has dropped noticeably over the last year. But it still easily goes for a full day with reasonable screen use (reading on the commute,...), so my pain for looking into how to replace it wasn't high enough yet.

I don't want to be apologetic of practices like glueing in batteries, I'm a fan of right-to-repair. I was just taken aback by the statement that didn't square with my experience (I'm not the only one in my social bubble with a phone older than four years, by far).

I replaced the battery in my first gen iPhone SE myself. It wasn't easy, though!

I still use 2016 SE and charging once in 1.5 - 2 days. But I rarely use GPS/Bluetooth etc. And most of my internet time is on desktop/laptop.

> Android seems to be a lot more lenient than iOS with requirements.

I think the reverse is true. The current version, iOS 15, works on the iPhone 6S, a seven-year-old phone.

Even if modern versions of Android did work on such old hardware (and I don't know, maybe it does), Android phones simply don't get those updates because they are deprecated much faster.

So to repeat most of the other comments here, what you're looking for is an iPhone.

I don't even think they're that expensive, the iPhone SE starts at $429 new, and less if you buy a refurbished model, which still comes with a brand new battery.

honestly iphones seem to last the longest both in terms of durability and longevity of security patches. starting with the pixel 6, the pixels now see security updates for 5 years (instead of 2? 3?) though.

other android phones are a bit scary, even if you're running an oss os that gets patches to the userland, are those proprietary drivers and kernel bits all getting patched after the official support ends?

>are those proprietary drivers and kernel bits all getting patched after the official support ends?

proprietary drivers/blobs: no way in hell

kernel: since the kernel is GPL, you can theoretically patch it yourself but it's a massive undertaking.

Like many others have said this is not true. I've had a nexus 4 (2012-2017) which I had to change due to battery starting to swell, also had a custom rom which might have helped. I upgraded to a Pixel2 in 2017 which I still have. I'm even considering replacing the battery instead of the whole phone since it's still doing just fine otherwise. I really don't need a better camera so why bother with a new phone that doesn't offer much more than what I already have. Both of those phone are/were caseless too, just be careful with your stuff and you'll do just fine for a couple of years.

In my opinion people choose to change their phone more than they have to change their phone.

Phone manufacturers are offering updates for longer: https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_pledges_4_os_updates_5_year...

Alternatively, the FOSS community (e.g. postmarketOS) are working on bringing plain old Linux to smartphones. It's not ready yet, but they're making good progress.

Many phones now support replaceable battiers: PinePhone Pro, Librem 5, Shift6mq.

What do you mean? My iPhone 7 is still up and running pretty well. It's even still supported.

Same here, my wife and I bought used iphone 7 and I already to replace a screen and two batteries.

I have to admit I miss having a better cam - but I will never pay 1000Usd for a phone.

If you are concerned with waste, don't buy a new phone.

Instead of being stuck with a phone from 5-6 years ago, you can buy last year's flagman device for half the cost, if you feel like it.

I did not buy a brand new phone for last 14 years. Keeping the same phone for all that time would be rather limiting.

(I have a working Motorola phone from 2007, it runs Linux and has a web browser! It lacks 4G connectivity, GPS, wireless charging, and the camera is so-so by modern standards.)

Fairphone's repairability is the current lead: https://www.fairphone.com/fr/2021/02/04/french-repairability...

That said, my main phone is a Nokia 105 that I haven't had to replace yet. For 'smart' capability, I own an iPhone 8 that I don't bring out in public. I use it as a mini-tablet and do online banking etc. This is the trade-off I make. It sucks not being able to take a good photo when I'm out and about. As for online banking, I do that at home and always make sure I know my balance prior to going out so I don't need to check it when I'm out.

Why not just use the iPhone everywhere?

They have those. They're iPhones. I'm using an iPhone 8+. My wife is using my old iPhone 5s. I changed the battery on the 5s but that's it.

In my opinion that also depends on your own attitude, needs and expectations. I use a Moto G5 from 2017 running Android 8.1. Recently the battery started to swell and I replaced it with a third-party battery which is working fine. That was not a flagship phone when it came out, but it was a decent phone.

It is still working fine for what I use it for. I don't need a flagship phone. Most important is that I can use it for calling, google email and calendar, google maps, waze, ebooks. It is nice to be able to use a browser on it, but honestly, on a phone screen a lot of web pages have 20% useful content and 80% commercials that stay in place during scrolling. And finally it's also useful to use some "apps"... and this is more out of need than out of want: my impression is that a lot of apps are just a bloated repacking of a mobile page. A bit annoyed by all those companies that insist on having their own app for something that could be a mobile web page and in reality often is nothing more than a wrapper around a mobile page.

Long time ago, I was really happy with Cyanogenmod on an Htc Desire... never tried LineageOS, maybe I should try that to get a more recent Android, but not clear what it would actually gain me.

I had a Sony Xperia Z1. It lasted with me more than 7 years (october 2013-november 2020), until I accidentally dropped it (more precisely, my own dog scared me) and it fell screen faced onto a sharp corner on the desk foot, which is solid steel. Screen cracked a bit actually, but I just used it as an excuse to get a new one.

LineageOS was which actually made it last that long software wise.

I have the Z3 compact. Google no longer supports it, as in Play Store just disappeared last year, or maybe before.

I would install LineageOS, but it looks like a pain to install without wiping secure keys or whatever, and I'm worried my banking app (which still works) won't on the new OS.

Get iPhone SE, put it in a good armor, 5 years of expected life, maybe more. Will probably need to replace the battery once.

One of the biggest reasons for the limited lifetime of phones is battery degradation. Save your battery by only charging to 80 or 90% rather than to 100%.

This should be possible via a software setting, but it generally isn't. Instead you can use a dongle.

https://chargie.org/

>This should be possible via a software setting, but it generally isn't. Instead you can use a dongle.

on ios it's available natively through the "optimized battery charging" option. On android with root you can use https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/app-root-4-0-battery-char...

Thanks, I didn't know about optimized battery charging. It's new to iOS 13, so wasn't available last time I looked.

It's different than chargie. It's hard to say which is better, I think I'll stick with chargie. But it's optimized battery charging is close enough that if I didn't already own a chargie I wouldn't buy one...

I was under the impression that "100%" charge, as displayed on the device, is not actually 100% battery charge, but instead limited to the ~90% like normally suggested. I've heard back and forth advice about this same topic for at least a decade now, with some people claiming that it's been built into the hardware/software the whole time.

It's might not be 100%, but it's probably pretty close. How long the phone lasts on a full charge is something benchmarked in every review and emphasized on the product webpage. How many years the battery lasts isn't.

I left the Android ecosystem in 2014 because I couldn't get OS updates despite the hardware still being better than most newer phones.

I moved to a Blackberry Z30 (best phone I've ever owned); it gave me five good years and is still my backup device despite now being unsupported. The Sony XA2+ I replaced it with in 2019 is running SailfishOS. It's given me three years and I expect at least another three. Meanwhile my partner's Samsung S10, also bought in 2019, is already struggling because there are no Android updates.

It seems to me the key to longevity is the availability of OS updates. Or perhaps I should say; the availability of OS updates that don't cynically downgrade your phone's performance to encourage the purchase of a new one.

My OnePlus 5T (2017) is still alive and kicking. No unnecessary glass, rear fingerprint sensor, 3.5mm jack. It has an unlocked bootloader. I am running LineageOS and the last software update was three days ago. Honestly this sounds more like a you problem.

>You probably remember there was a time when we weren't buying new phones every two years

Those times are still here.

Still using budget 2018 Android phone. I need phone for calls, messaging apps, alarm, 2FA, to occasionally look at the map, take some picture, light browsing. Still works perfectly for all my use cases.

Battery still lasts ~3 days, but I'm not a heavy phone user.

I’m still using an iPhone X, which I bought new, so that’s almost 5 years. I will be getting the iPhone 14 when it comes out next month and the upgrade definitely won’t be trivial! You don’t need to buy a new phone every 2 years and I believe it’s worth spending a bit more, but less frequently on a phone that lasts.

I have a Google Pixel 2 that is my "travel phone", has a very decent camera, the "old" processor still handles everything fine. Battery lasts all day for normal use and some navigation; but longer with battery saver mode.

Current daily is a Samsung s20, my battery will last all day for normal usage, though drains quickly with GPS.

The odd thing. I don't use screen protectors on must of my devices, use a thin clear silicone case

Yep pixel 2 here. Still going strong. Original battery still works well. No slowdowns occuring either.

My iPhone XS is still going strong after 4 years. I don't bother with a case and it survives being dropped from time to time (one drop onto stone steps did crack the glass back). It's still plenty fast. Only downside is the weight.

I really wish Apple would stop making the back of their phones out of glass. It does feel lovely, but I always end up cracking it and having to put a case on to cover the broken glass, I could put a case on from day one but then… why make it out of glass in the first place if you’re expecting all your customers to instantly cover it?

I'm still using a Pixel 3 with LineageOS on it. I just wish that I never upgraded to Android 12... Android 11 was a bit better. The main thing is the drop down icons were not so huge (Wi-Fi, Location, etc).

I'm using an iPhone 5S right now and will be upgrading to an iPhone SE this week as it's getting kinda difficult to get all the apps there.

iPhones in general and the SE line in particular have excellent battery longevity, physical durability and long-term support e.g. security patches.

There will always be people paying every other year for the best device to be spied on and betrayed by.

I keep saying I'm going to switch to a feature phone and a tablet, and finding excuses not to.

I miss my old Nokia.

For me it’s transportation, I Uber everywhere. Unfortunately we need smartphones. I cannot do my job without logging into a vpn thru my phone.

What are your main reasons for not switching?

My Samsung S9 is chugging along just fine besides a diminished battery and screen burnin from reddit.

Pixel 3a or higher, GrapheneOS.org

iPhone, and self control

My iPhone is 4 years old now and works just fine.

iPhone XR here. Works fine

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