I got a new phone the other day. I won’t say what make or model; this isn’t a review and it doesn’t really matter.
It’s shinier and newer and has ✨more features✨. But that’s not why I got it. I don’t consider it an upgrade. It’s only a replacement. It’s getting rarer now to find things that really feel like an upgrade. The pace of technology has slowed, but it keeps trying to pretend that it hasn’t. There’s incremental improvements, and then marketing fluff to fill the gap.
The battery in my old phone has degraded badly. Battery life is a problem now. It’s not unusable, and normally I’d eke at least another month out of it. Indeed, I’m still using my old phone until I get all the accessories I need in hand, namely a case and screen protector.
I don’t feel like I really need a new phone yet. But these are not normal times. With tariffs coming I figured I had better get something new sooner than later.
I don’t go for the newest top-of-the-line phones. I just don’t need that. I don’t have games on my phone. The main feature of a phone for me is just portability. I can do web browsing or take a picture or notes wherever I am. But to do real work I sit down at a computer.
When I bought my last phone, it was the previous release cycle’s model, refurbished. It lasted me about 4 years. That’s not too bad. I intended to do the same thing again, but I was at an awkward point in the releases of things, so the comparable phone was already several years old. Again, normally not a big problem, things are different now. I wanted to maximize the amount of time this thing lasts.
So I bought brand new this time. My thinking is that while it does cost more, soon everything will cost much more. So hopefully it will be worth it. No. That’s a sign of mad times, isn’t it? What would really be best is if it isn’t worth it. If the prices of phones and other things don’t rise to justify stocking up.
The question now is what to do with the old phone. It would be a shame to just throw it away. I will have to do some research.