When android isn’t spyware, I’ll consider switching.
It might just be the old, but I’m having trouble thinking of the last time there was any meaningful advance in mobile phones at all. Face ID comes to mind.
Not a day goes by where I don’t feel angry that there are no viable, mainstream FLOSS Linux phones. No Android, nothing downstream of Google at all… just Linux and a nice, touch-friendly UI. Until then, I pinch my nose and pick Apple as the lesser of the available evils.
So tired of the audience participation in these endless phone wars. Oh you have a smart phone? Dope! They’re cool and useful. Anyway
Honestly, the only thing I care about when it comes to what other people do regarding phone purchases, is that that they at the very fucking least use their old phone until it breaks and don’t just go out and buy a new phone every two years because they want something new and shiny. People who do that low key disgust me.
Wouldn’t that effectively end the used phone market, forcing everyone to pay for new?
If phones were built to last and something you would only buy once every 10ish years, I think we would all be better for it. I also think buying a phone from new would mean something different than it does in today’s consumer culture. It would be way cheaper longterm for everybody as well.
The used phone market only exists because of the current buy and throw away culture we live in.
Personally I wish there was a way to just build a phone like with PCs. With the exception of needing to upgrade my SSDs my computer is basically good for another 10 years or so, I wish I could do the same for a smart phone.
That would be awesome, ngl. Maybe someday. I’m pretty sure that if a company started selling itself as a build a phone-company they would become quite successful very quickly. If I had the knowhow, I would straight up try and see if this idea has legs.
It most certainly has legs the biggest problem is parts standardization and the lack of any companies actually trying to do that. Even just an early HP style built to order would be a step in the right direction.
That’s every iPhone user…
Not really. I know a few iPhone users who have kept their phones for a long time. The most impressive case was a guy who had had the same phone for 11 years and only had to buy a new one because an update fried the old one.
I don’t understand how one can believe it just works. Update fries the phone so they buy a new one from the same company that can’t or won’t make sure updates don’t fry older phones. Apple hates backwards compatibility.
I mean, I don’t get the love for Apple either, I just didn’t agree with the claim that all iPhone users were the types to discard a perfectly good phone for a new one 2 years later just because the new one was cooler.
The fact that someone can buy a new iPhone after having had an old one crash due to updates is their own prerogative.
I personally have a very low understanding of tech, but to me, it just seems like an industry standard to make phones that won’t live forever. Everybody does it. They could have given us phones with batteries that never wear out. They could have designed the tech to make sure it would work on all phones. They could halt tech evolution to make sure that no phone is left behind. But none of them do.
I originally wanted a button phone after my prior smartphone died. Then my government decided to force a new ID system on its citizens and make it exceedingly annoying and difficult to function in society without a smartphone. So I had to cave and get myself a new smartphone and wave goodbye to button phones forever.
I don’t know how long this phone will last me, but I hope it will survive ten years at the very least. Even though it isn’t an iPhone I avoid updates for as long as the phone allows me to because I don’t want to wake up one day and suddenly have a phone that doesn’t work.
We are all being scammed to some extent. Not just iPhone users.
True. If every iPhone user was a throwaway consumer, there wouldn’t have been such an outrage over apple “updating” slowness and inefficiency into older devices.
Says all the iPhone users. Your phones are throttled by the manufacturers and you still defend them and buy their products. Not very smart consumers. Sorry.
Yep!
- post made from my five year old iPhone 11 Pro
The Iphone is a luxury commodity and like all luxury commodities it marketed for people with little sense and lots of money who are easily separated from the ladder with shiny trinkets. Before the Iphone there was the Rolex and the super-secret clothing designer brands only 1%er yuppies think they know about. Before that people ground up egyptian mummies for medicine/taste and bought expensive jar of nutmeg spice from halfway across the world imported via boat. These kind of people were always going to spend 2000$ on trinkets whether its a 2000$ pocket computer or a 800$ wrist watch is a difference in taste. The real question is why humanity can’t shed this consumerist prone archetype what is it about people constantly wanting new shiny things that they don’t need and for which the money can go to a better place? Why do modern consumerist not have the ability to tell corporations to fuck off? Why is it that after a quarter century of time to get used to the concept of a computer and an email people tantrum and shriek when their tappy button gets moved 2 inches to the left without knowing how to fix it? Why do we consider this an acceptable baseline for human intelligence and emotional volatility?
I would argue it is premium, not luxury.
Premium like a flagship Samsung, offering extra features and quality for the buyer, usually for a disproportionately higher price. Luxury is where there is no extra value offered beyond brand recognition, signaling to yourself and the world that your can afford it (like the obscure clothing brands you mention).
Not many luxury phone brands exist, maybe Vertu with gold and diamond set phones. Cars are an easier comparison, premium is e.g. MB, Audi or BMW, while luxury is Bentley, RR or Ferrari.
Rolex is also more of a premium product within the watch market, it is machine made and mass produced to a very high quality level, offering additional value (like better accuracy, less steel corrosion, longer service intervals) compared to other automatic Swiss watches. On the other hand, luxury hand made watches like Patek Philippe or FP Journe are not competing with others by offering better technical parameters, but dominate due to their brand recognition, making rich people beg salespeople to get a chance to buy them.
This of course doesn’t really make a difference beyond marketing, as most people cannot afford a 10k Rolex or a 200k FP Journe either - but they do hold a very different position in their market.
To answer your question, I think most humans are very social, and always seek to stand out with status and personal brand within their group. Capitalism offers the easy way to do this - buy this thing, and show the world what you are worth. It unfortunately works, as it targets our strong primal instincts.
And the $2k Galaxy Folds are for discerning consumers?
No, the 100-200$ Galaxy S mid range android phone with half decent RAM, screen size, actual specs and features that enable practical work, social communication, or entertainment consumption with a reasonable price to lifespan cycle ratio is.
You know, something you can actually buy outright, calculate approximately how much value you got by how many years it lasted before breaking, and not get stuck into a never-ending cycle of slowly frog-boiling raising contract rates.
So wheres the brand new retail sold 200$ Iphone budget entry for the plebs to access the IOS ecosystem on the cheap?
Yeah, I thought so. its called market segregation and Apple knows the exact crowd they made a billion dollar industry pleasing.
Any phone thats >500$ and doubley so for >1000$ are for the people who spend hundreds of dollars a month on contracts renewing them continuously every two years convinced its somehow a deal and don’t think twice about it. Different flavor of luxury good gotta get that tribalism social posturing in after all.
If you were a true professional in an industry making complete use for videography, audio recording and editing, music production, I could maybe see it.
But lets be real, thats the statistical outlier for apple users you know exactly what 99% of people do with their phones. Check emails, shit posting on the internet, watch youtube, MAYBE record a quick video or picture without knowing how to manually balance anything or even knowing what an ISO is.
So wheres the brand new retail sold 200$ Iphone budget entry for the plebs to access the IOS ecosystem on the cheap?
They used to have the iPhone SE series, which was significantly cheaper than the standard ones. Prices went up on those each generation, though, and they discontinued it for the “e” variants for the mainline iPhones, which are much more expensive than even the most expensive SE.
Last time I went to my cellphone carrier offices to upgrade my hardware, they were already pushing the iPhone 15 or 16, but I went in there and asked for the iPhone 10, managed to get the very last one they had in stock. It cost a fraction of what the latest ones did, does everything I need it to do, and a couple of years later it’s still purring like a kitten.
it’s still purring like a kitten.
…should a phone be doing that?
I mean hey as long as it’s not breathing and whistling!
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra 256GB - $1299
Apple 16 Pro Max 256GB - $1199
Google Pixel 9 Pro 256GB - $1199
The only person being represented by this meme is OP.
Their 1TB version is $1600 because they get away with charging $400 for $40 worth of storage.
Galaxies and pixels are half off msrp like 6 months later.
My current galaxy cost like $200
People paying a grand for a cell phone are suckers for real
Apple devices mostly aren‘t significantly more expensive than their counterparts by other manufacturers.
However, most of those offer cheaper alternatives that Apple doesn’t. While the most expensive Samsung S25 is more expensive than the equivalent iPhone, Samsung also sells models under 100€. That does skew the perception towards Samsung being more affordable.
Which it is, of course, if you don’t care about the extra amenities of more expensive phones.
Apple devices mostly aren‘t significantly more expensive than their counterparts by other manufacturers.
However, most of those offer cheaper alternatives that Apple doesn’t.
So, there are no Apple counterparts for what “other manufacturers” make.
Well, depends on the price point but below 500-600€, yea, Apple has nothing to offer. At or above that price point, there obviously are counterparts to Apple devices and vice versa.
Apple’s discounting strategy is generally to sell last year’s model, sometimes the model before that, with roughly $200 discounts for each year since its release. They sometimes release a lower spec model (the 16e is the current example, prior SE models or even the mini models from previous generations were part of this strategy as well) and that sometimes means the 2-year-old model isn’t kept available as long.
That’s where their 5-7 year support window really shines, in that they can just sell older models as discounted models, knowing that the new owner will still get 3-5 years of support.
The other thing is that the used market for iPhones is pretty robust. I can go buy used phones that are 3 or 4 years old and still get a good 1-4 years of additional support. At least in the U.S., if you told me my budget for a phone was gonna be $300 for the next 2 years, I think I’d probably buy a used iPhone.
As it currently stands, I’m still on Pixels on a 2 year cycle, but I also know that my “sell used to offset the price of my new phone” strategy also would be much cheaper if I did it with iPhones instead of Pixels.
I’m well aware of apple’s strategy and I myself am typing this on an iPhone 13 mini I bought refurbished.
However, for public perception of a brand as being expensive, used/refurbished models don’t really count. The cheapest phone Apple currently sells new (16e) is about 600€; 700€ directly from Apple. That’s not a cheap phone.
Samsung, as one of the most expensive android brands, still sells a variety of phones well below that, as low as 80€ for a brand new phone.That obviously skews the perception towards Samsung being more affordable than Apple. Which they are. I cannot possibly get a new iPhone at 80€ or even a decent refurbished one.
But of course that still doesn’t mean iPhones are overpriced. You usually get what you pay for and similar devices by other manufacturers are usually just as expensive.
You can buy a brand new iPhone 16e starting at $599.
I don’t know the current exchange rate, but I feel like $599 is significantly more than <100€
The exchange rate is pretty close to 1:1 these days. It is significantly more.
I know, I was being sardonic. It’s insane to suggest that a $600+ phone is a budget option.
I was just backing you up with an approximate exchange rate.
Oh it’s definitely not a budget option. It’s Apple’s idea of budget.
I don’t think I’ve paid more than that for a pixel, and I have bought a 256 GB Pixel before. I feel like that $600 apple phone has 32 GB storage or something absurd
iPhone batteries don’t blow up like pixels.
I’ve had like 5 and I have zero idea what you’re referring to
It’s true, they just get nerfed into planned obsolesce which causes the company to get sued.
They then fixed the issue and are now more transparent about the health of your battery than many Android manufacturers. While “battery gate” had been a problem for a little while around 2017, it hasn’t been in more than 7 years. Old iPhones last a very long time these days and warn you if your battery is degraded to a point where it’ll affect the usability of your iPhone.
Wait until you hear what the fix is for the exploding Pixel batteries
Oh I’m aware. Apple set the trend just like they did with the pricing of non Apple devices.
I have a Nexus 5 still on its original battery. Idk how.
128gb for the $599 model.
or for 559 you can get a 256 GB pixel
So we’re upset with Apple because they don’t make low budget options?
Please send a link to a new Samsung under 100€/$.
$111 and released 2 years ago. But still, closer than I thought. Amazon 3rd party seller is kinda cheating though.
But my question remains, are we upset with Apple because they haven’t provided a low budget option? There are so many good reasons to be angry with companies; “Their products are out of my price range” is like the lamest one.
The Samsung A06 was launched (in Germany) in May (2025) and you can get it for ~80€.
Anyway, we’re not talking about being angry with Apple, we’re talking about why Apple is perceived more expensive/less affordable than Android. The reason: they don’t have cheap/inexpensive phones (or anything inexpensive in any category). Apple is marketed as a premium brand, has premium prices, and we’re making fun of that.
I did a quick search - a nice option it seems.
That’s fair - but the prices aren’t really a premium are they? They’re just standard. What Apple is lacking is budget phones like Samsung. Less features, less performant hardware, less cost. What I’m getting at is that Samsung has many more “premium” options compared to Apple - yet because Apple’s options are only “premium” they’re considered the phone for rich assholes with too much money, so maybe we should just be making fun of those people instead, regardless of their phone.
but the prices aren’t really a premium are they? They’re just standard.
They’re standard for premium ranges.
The thing is, Apple markets themselves as a brand for wealthy, hipster kind of people, plus iPhones are very easily identifiable. Samsung never branded itself like that and with all the different (and third party) cases you usually don’t spot them on first glance.
We make fun of the people that buy the branding by making fun of the brand. And I usually don’t see people making fun of those who buy refurbished or used iPhones from five years or so, but of those who always have the newest generation.
100€ is about $115. So it’s under 100€.
You gonna respond to anything else I mentioned or are you just gonna drop a useless pedantry and leave?
Nothing else you mentioned matters. I provided you a link to a Samsung phone under the specified price, as requested. The rest of your comment was useless pedantry.
Samsung is in a contest with apple to see who can suck the most ass. So I don’t think that’s a fair example to ask for.
Most companies are.
I’m not the one claiming the existence of a new sub-100 euro Samsung.
Didn’t see any indication anyone would say that. If they did, that would be delusional.
It very much isn’t. At least here in Germany, you can get a brand new Galaxy A06 for 80€ (incl. tax). The phone released end of November '24.
I can’t speak to the quality of the phone but it does exist.
Okay. I was accused of making this claim but I don’t keep up with Samsung at all. Firstly, I found their product quality insanely abysmal. Secondly, their prices seem to have gone up. Thirdly, the bloatware they put on their phones could never be worth it at any price.
This logic is outdated. The top of the line iPhones are no more (and sometimes a bit less) than comparable Android flagships.
Their base models come in around high-midrange Android, true. But some of the specs (CPU/camera) still beat out Android phones at their price range. Heck on CPU they often beat more expensive Android phones.
I’m not saying that because I’m a fan of Apple it’s just like, it’s not just them. I’ve had something like 9 Android phones and 6 iPhones. Really in the end they aren’t that different day-to-day.
My older mid tier iphone was more expensive than my wife’s pixel 9 pro bought around the same time. Her phone is better in almost every way, for sure every way that matters. I am counting the days until I can switch back to a device that doesn’t suck.
Sweet Jesus, why do you buy so many phones?
I bought the first iPhone the week it came out, and I’m at 2 iPhone’s, 4 android phones.
You must be the target audience for these companies.
I’m a techie guy. I like tech. I run my own servers at home. I run a Lemmy instance.
Trust me I am very aware I absolutely do not NEED a new phone. But if I can get a good deal on a new one and recoup a significant amount by trading/selling the old - I do (after a year or so, usually)
It’s something that interests me. Some people collect knick-knacks and probably spend more than I do on consumer electronics.
leaves out the part where their old iphone “just stopped working” after a required update.
Mine is 5 years old. Doing just fine.
Not in a literal sense but apple do tend to cripple old iPhone with their newest software update. I should know i owned an iPhone 12 mini on ios 17. That little bugger stutter everytime i pull down the control centre, scrolling through safari, scrolling through app, delay when pressing keyboard and yes, the battery is above 90% iirc.
My wife’s iphone xr is even worse, granted it has been 7 years but god damn, that thing make my blood boil. Its still on ios 17, i cant imagine how slow it’s gonna be on ios 18. Battery is at 82% though but i dont think replacing battery is worth it at the moment. Just waiting for the right moment to upgrade.
I’ve had the same experience. I had a 6s and an XR, and they both slowed down tremendously overnight after iOS updates (not the same one, 6s happened a few years before). Also, the update for the 6s that caused performance issues also removed/made redundant a lot of the OS features that made use of 3D Touch, because the newer phones didn’t have it anymore. For the 6s, I know it wasn’t a battery issue; I replaced that battery, and it didn’t fix them.
For a minute, battery replacements or repairs weren’t even a reasonable option, with how repair-unfriendly their phones had gotten. But afaik they’ve improved in that regard, providing official tools, parts and guidance. Also, you can call them to have them activate the Face ID module if you replace a screen, which is a big win for right-to-repair. Props to them for that!
Experiencing none of that on iPhone 11 Pro.
I think if anything, the 12 mini just had subpar tech due to size constraints. Sadly.
I think ios 17 is just buggy on iphone 12 mini because i compared it side by side with my wife iPhone XR and hers is just fine when pulling the control centre.
Also, i think the sole problem is apple is throttling the 12 mini when it gets too warm. Its a fine phone but the battery is really bad. I have long upgraded to another phone but its just bad experience on my part. Thats all.
Funny, I have an XS from the same year and it’s totally fine on iOS 18. I might even replace the battery.
Funny you said that because one has 4GB ram and another has 3GB ram. Plus, my wife has a 64GB model and its almost full. Performance really took a nose dive. You must have a really low bar regarding performance.
Take a look at the video. Opening app takes awhile compared to XS and multitasking is shit. Opened up a camera and go back to another app, guess what? Refreshed.
deleted by creator
My Oneplus 5t running LineageOS still works really well, snappy even.
It’s a year older then the XR
Yes, but how’s the official ROM support?
Does it matter? They made it easy to ROM and now my device gets to live on by the support of the community. That’s how tech should be. We can’t expect endless support from companies (it’s just not realistic) but if they don’t actively hinder you from owning your own device and making it somewhat modifiable, it adds a lot of life.
In the context of the iPhone XR mentioned by the post I replied to, that “official ROM” is nearly non-functional, is that really better in your opinion?
Yes. This is what im talking about. If only i can flash a lightweight os on my wife iphone and extend its life i would. Ultimately, it stuck on ios 18 with piss poor performance. Its a bad experience. Why should i contribute to another ewaste if i can help it.
It does matter because for most people that phone became e-waste around 2020. Iphones released that year got major OS upgrades till 2022 and are still getting security updates.
I do wish Apple was forced to unlock the bootloader, but for 95% of users, their phones get significantly longer support than normal.
2020 iPhone SE is my favorite phone. It’s the perfect size and power. Apple’s going to have to pry it from my cold dead hands.
I bought that one refurbed for one of my kids. I was definitely impressed. Small, fast, actual iOS version. Where is this magic phone from? Its not like the others.
I honestly don’t know why smartphones got so powerful and expensive, and why everyone just rolled with it. No one iPhone user needs the hardware that the latest iPhone provides, and I’m sure as hell Apple doesn’t even let you push that hardware to its limits. The average Joe just uses an instant messenger app and maybe a few social media apps, and that’s it. Who in the world actually needs hardware so powerful and compact on a phone that it is on the verge of experiencing quantum tunneling?
Well, more power efficiency is always better and chips are the opposite of cars. The faster the chip can finish doing its calculations and go back to sleep, the less power it will end up using.
They can’t keep getting away with this!!!
Narrator: They kept getting away with it.
“it just works” is also what my partner says, but we can’t videocall through Signal for longer than 1h because her iPhone will overheat and go into temp error mode and shuts down. And even when charging the battery with the official charger it will drain faster than it can charge during a videocall. Apple is far superior for sure xD
I mean, sure. We could all just list anecdotes on why one or the other is superior.
Tap for spoiler
The superior phone is the one you like to use.
I agree with your spoiler. But when you look at how Apple works, with there monopoly with their app store and how old phones get mediocre updates while newer phones lack significant improvements, while they do their best to make it exclusive (for example, even though usb C is forced on to them, they have their own version. But also removing the aux plus which sadly is copied by other brands). Samsung does the same, as they joined the fight against right to repair so they are just as evil as Apple imo. Many brands are either from mega corps and push apps onto you and love to exploit their users, or are Chinese brands stealing away customers with too cheap prices while their next line is just as bad as the competition while they hoard your data. It’s hard to find a decent brand these days. It’s just an ocean of shit companies.
Oh wow! Another super inspired meme hating on a subset of users’ personal preferences! So original, thank you! Haha, apple user and phones bad!
Big “I use arch btw” energy.
We are making fun of the choice to buy an overpriced and super restricted phone, like literally I couldn’t install ytliteplus on an European iphone in Europe, why because apple needs to give an id to apps for it to install without a PC or Mac server which needs to be connected every 7 days, I think.
You might be making fun of that, OP is just vomiting up weak, tired memes. As another user already put it, neither iPhone nor Android is that great anymore.
I actually think using something because “it just works” is a braindead take. Most things just work, that’s literally the bare minimum. Plus most things that “just work” in my experience don’t in fact just work.
The most innovative thing the iPhone has added in years is the LiDAR and like <1% of the users actually use that beyond Face ID.
