JMorgana

I've been a Tracfone customer for years. I don't need an awesome camera OR screen and I refuse to pay $1K for a phone. I've been doing prepaid for several years and I have so many cellphone minutes at this point that it might as well be unlimited. They always roll over as long as you do the next service period's activation before the current one expires...they just add a year to the expiration date. I frequently buy a new phone at the end of the year because the price point is within a few $$ of purchasing a year's service card, which includes 1200 minutes, texts, and 1.2 GB of data. Frankly, I don't need unlimited of any of these and I love paying $100-ish per YEAR for my cell phone. I'll probably be a Tracfone customer for life.

pinniped

We're still using the Pixel 3's we got on Black Friday 2018.

They were advertised as "free" with Google Fi service. My actual costs were the sales tax on full retail price, the incremental cost of using Google Fi (a damn expensive phone service!) for 120 days, the time value of about $2800 tied up for about 90 days until the rebates came through, plus a little hassle dealing with Fi, a company with basically zero customer service and terrible processes for things like shipping. So about $200 per phone. They've been fantastic $200 phones. (We jumped to T-Mobile the day we hit our commitment for the phones.)

Right now, we're planning on them surviving through BF 2021 when we will consider new devices. Maybe the Pixel 5's, depending on the prevailing deals. If there are no screaming deals, we can probably go longer on the 3's. I haven't found an app they can't run.

TGarza

A friend purchases the annual $30 Red Pocket eBay plan on T Mobile which has 200 talk, 1000 text and 200 mb data every month.

JMorgana

Just looked at their website...that's a great deal. If I didn't have so many banked minutes and texts and such, I'd consider it.

yyznomad

I have no use for a "new" phone.

I got my free iPhone 5c from a fellow FTer and it's been working just fine for me.
Well, at least for now...

crackjack

The 5c has not gotten any iOS update for almost 4 years...

Perhaps the 5S is OK for now as got extra support + some further security updates until Jan 2021 as Apple wanted to show their devotion to long lifespan plan of their products, but that’s the earliest iPhone I’d recommend using - and I think it’s now reached a true end-of-life point.

I know the feeling though... I’m typing this on my iPhone SE (from 2016), going to miss the size when I upgrade in October - rumour is that Apple is going to get rid of the iPhone ‘mini’ form factor after this year’s model, which is just barely acceptable size-wise.

exp

This thread seems to be all over the place.

Is it about having a cheap smart phone or a cheap phone which only does calls and texts, using the old 10-key keypad?

The phone linked in the OP from 4 years ago is $110 so is anyone using a $50 or less phone?

Then it seems the concern is about the expensive phones being too big.

People draw different lines about how much they're willing to spend for a given item. So one person will spend a lot more for clothes than a friend but may be unwilling to spend for the latest phone while his friend with the more modest clothes buy the latest. You can apply these individual value calculations to all sorts of products -- cars, wines, plane tickets etc.

I could function with a $100 or even a $200 phone but I don't want to. Chances are the OS and security updates are out of date, may not run certain apps smoothly, may not have biometric authentication, may have limited storage, may not have an adequate camera.

Again, individual differences on which features or attributes people are going to prioritize. Some people may need to run certain apps while others may use the camera a lot and it's worth it to her to have the vest phone camera possible since she's going to shoot thousands of pictures and look at them often.

I actually had an iPhone 5S for a couple of years, obviously upgraded when the 6 and 6 Plus came out, the first major jump in screen size for iPhones. Certainly some segment of the market wants smaller phones. But it's niche. From the beginning, people bought the larger phones, 6 Plus over the 6, 7 Plus over the 7, etc.

I think the SE are not big sellers and heard the sales of the iPhone 12 Mini disappointed.

crackjack

I’d say the thread also covers using phones for more than a standard 1-3 year cycle, reducing the average cost over its lifespan.

Once a phone stops receiving security updates, I believe it is time to retire it.

Sadly the era of smaller-sized ‘phones’ ended as usage shifted to media consumption. I prefer easily pocketable phones and would likely continue to use the SE for a few more years, but fear 2022 will only be ~6”+ monsters...

(I also bought a Realme 6” phone for $120, + a Nokia candybar for less... but the 4” SE remained my regular phone.

Also, the 2nd gen SE was Apple’s best-seller for a few months before the 12 released, still does reasonably well due to its price tag.

And, the 11 mini probably didn’t do terribly, just poorer than expectations: https://wccftech.com/iphone-11-iphon...g-phones-2020/)

yyznomad

As with other older Apple models there has been a termination of iOS updates, which can mean certain drawbacks such as inability to use various apps.
But for me, the inability to use some apps has been nice. Kind of like when I didn't own a phone for two years. It can be done!

rickg523

$1000 is too much to pay for any phone. You're just buying a name, not significantly better performance than a phone that runs say $750 and only better at thep margins than a $400 phone. For most, a cheap smartphone with text and a single lens will do the job. People who claim it's about the camera, should just get a camera if they really care about photography. The phone camera is a convenience item that will never perform like a camera, regardless of advertising to the contrary. But they're a terrific convenience.
A 50-inch TV is a different viewing experience entirely than a 21 inch. So that's apples and oranges. Unless you use TV like a radio.
If you want transportation and don't care much about cabin features, a 10 year old car will do fine. But if you have a 10 year old car, a 2021 model will be a revelation in terms of creature comforts. And if you are a tentative driver, new cars will make your life easier and driving safer, for you and everyone else on the road around you.
The question really is does a $65k auto give you enough value over a $30k auto, or is it really status you're buying? That's a sucker move.
Are you a sucker for buying these new toys? I think only phones are really playing people for dopes. Cars and TVs are different and not so starkly status bait.

TGarza

To me, the most important consideration is the bands supported by the phone and the bands deployed or soon to be deployed by the carrier. Older phones are often missing newer bands which result in reduced coverage and increased congestion. AT&T has announced end of life for 3G in February 2022. No iPhone before the 6 will be supported.

exp

iPhone 12 Pro is $999 and iPhone 12 is $799.

I think the 12 Pro may have more RAM than the regular 12. But the other aspects are larger screen, different camera abilities. Also the 12 Pro models start at 128 GB while the regular 12 starts at 64 GB.


There were rumors that only the Pro models would have 5G mmWave bands but it turned out they used the same 5G modem.


For iPhone 13, you'd again expect larger screens for the more expensive models and more camera features including lenses. Also expected is that the Pro models would have Pro Motion (120 Hz refresh rate).

They will also have access to Qualcomm modems manufactured on a smaller die process, so likely to be more energy-efficient. As 5G networks are built out around the world, they would probably support more bands for use in other countries.

I bought the iPhone 12 Pro Max for $1099 and I may upgrade to the 13 or whatever they call it depending on the upgrades. I will be interested to see if the 5G modem adds a lot more bands, which would make it more useful for travel.

TGarza

I traded an iPhone 8 for $800 credit towards the iPhone 12. I immediately noticed the coverage difference. I am completely agree about the bands supported.

crackjack

Again, my opinion only, but it’s more about security updates rather than just OS feature updates - e.g. the latest update for the 5S/6 was 12.5.3 in May:
https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/ios-...holes-3804257/

Though, to each their own.



Interesting, I hadn’t realised that even older 4G capable phones could miss the cut.

Good to know, thanks. (I know someone who still uses a 5S, not sure the network.)

TGarza

I actually posted the wrong year. It should be Feb 2022 for AT&T. Other carriers have similar dates.


https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1324171/