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Comment by IshKebab | Hacker News Reader

I agree, but also battery life has significantly improved over the last decade. Every phone I or my friends have replaced recently has been because the screen has broken. I would put good money on this being true for most people.

I think if the EU really wanted to reduce phone waste they'd make it easier or cheaper to fix screens. Still, this doesn't seem like a terrible move. I bet you can make it relatively easy to replace batteries without compromising much. Look at the Macbook Neo for example.

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I had to replace my previous phone because my banking app dropped support for that Android version, and was going to stop working. The hardware was fine.

(I always buy phones in the cheapest tier, so that happens sooner)

Would it be cheaper in the long run to buy a newer phone less often? Get a "this year flagship" and use it for 5 years rather than a couple year old model and use it for 2-3?

No. You get a 2 year old flagship phone for $200-300 outright, instead of $1500+

Samsung also makes the A-series Galaxies which are a pretty solid mid-tier phones that are supported for years, too.

That's just plain bullshit? I just checked my local second hand marketplace, and 2 year old flagship models seem to go for about 35-50% of the current equivalent newest model price.

A flagship is ~1000, a good enough phone is ~200. So, no.

Those cheap phones are made out of garbage and are chock-full of bloatware and spyware. This also applies to Samsung flagships so I guess more expensive doesn't always mean better.

Not necessarily. I bought a 150 EUR Xiaomi for my son 1,5 years ago. The software is pretty okay, the thing is plenty fast, the screen looks good and battery life is great! The camera is not so great, but hey..

I don't think so, this was the first time it happened like that.

I'm really unsure how broken screens happen. Don't you have a protective case on your phone? I've had smartphones for over 20 years, and have never broken a screen. Am I just lucky? More careful? I drop my phones too, but have never broken the screen. The only thing that ever failed on any phone I've owned has been the battery.

I’m not crazy like some people, but I’ve broken screens many times and every time it has been in a case, one time it was in a case I specifically bought for extra protection.

Half of my screen breaks have been from getting out of my car with my phone in my lap and gravel on the ground.

Another way I’ve broken screens is from my phone falling out of my pocket and onto rocks/concrete. That has happened twice.

And the final way has been from getting smashed in my pocket. I slipped while scrambling some rocks and my phone(in a case I bought for this long backpacking trip) got smashed on my hip, another time I was running around at my friend’s house at night and ran into a wheel barrow, smashing it on my thigh.

Never had a battery fail.

A note: My current iPhone 16 pro is built like a tank, and the glass is truly extraordinary.

I knew there exist people for whom paying for phone insurance is a good idea! Thanks! In Norway you can get an insurance just for the screen, which is like half of the full one IIRC.

My phones all fail from internal hardware faults. Also never broken a screen.

I had a S3 that the battery would only last 12 hours or so, but the EMMC failed before the battery did.

Batteries die slowly. If your phone only lasts 12 hours under modest usage, it's approaching where some people would say the battery was failing

Attempted to take picture. Dropped phone from chest height. Center of screen hit corner of I-beam sitting on ground that I was standing at the end of. Bought a screen protector after that.

Dropped it off the top of some pallet racking, ping ponged down, broke the button and cracked the screen at the bottom near the button. Bought a case (and kept the screen protector on under it, lol)

Left it sitting on top of trailer tongue tool box to run timer to check/flip lunch that was being grilled in the vicinity. Trailer was involved in a minor industrial accident. Phone got tossed and crunched. Lunch was fine.

Exposed the 3rd one to, IDK, something, that etched it without hurting the case. IDK what that would be though since I can't think of anything that I have around or use that would do that.

Current phone has survived since 2022. Last month the case finally wore out to the point where corners were coming apart and it would sometimes get caught on its way in/out of pockets and got replaced.

I think it's just some people. I break my phone every couple years; I've never willingly upgraded or replaced a phone. The same thing happens with watches. It's a wonder I still have limbs.

On the other hand, my wife has never broken a phone, and has basically only upgraded when it becomes too old to be usable any more (due to battery issues or OS version causing problems). She's careful and sensible.

People drop their phones. It's not complicated.

You might just be lucky. Tempering glass is a tricky business and it can be very very strong if impacted in some places but extremely weak in others.

Yeah protective case helps A LOT. I've broken two phones basically two weeks from buying them by dropping them on the floor before I put them in protective case. Costly mistakes, I don't do them anymore. Nowadays I buy the case together with the phone.

I don't know if it's just my luck, I never drop my phone, but when I buy new, I'm guaranteed to drop it several times a day for the first two weeks of owning it. The protective case is a phone saver

some phones are slippery without the case!

For me i had a case and a screen protection film bit the phone dropped on stone pavement exactly so that a higher part of the stone hit the screen edge between the case and the panzer glass.

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