@Kyeh I was replacing the battery and lightning port on my 7Plus when the cat jumped up on the table and sent everything flying.now I have a 12 and a cat I would send to a Haitian neighborhood in Springfield.
@Kyeh@st_ellis I am watching Sky News from UK now and the eating cats and dogs thing seems like it will live on in infamy; possibly even more in Europe than here. And this is a place with wild political swings in UK, France, Italy… and the Brexit thing where it now seems most look back and go WTF were we thinking?
Oh they are explaining the electoral college thing right now to Englanders like can you believe this is even worse than our system?
BTW you can get Sky News 24 hrs a day if you have Peacock.
@Kyeh I replaced my 8 a few years ago because it had already had a battery replacement and was swiftly declining. I didn’t think I needed a new phone. When I got one, I realized I totally did.
@DLPanther Yeah, Apple’s not going to support the 7 plus much longer; I bought a refurbished 12 pro max from Woot intending to use it but I don’t like it that much. I might trade it in at Xfinity for something else but haven’t gotten around to it.
7 years, iPhone X
Maybe will upgrade around the holidays, when the carriers offer their best deals. Then maybe i can see if 5G is really that much better
@lonocat yeah just mentioned my X story below. The X is and was still fantastic with the first OLED screen. Actually bought it as an Apple refurb but has been fine for years. But X “aged-out” of new iOS updates last year. And I think XR will retire this year. Usually you get 5 years. Still works fine but I retired it and keep it as a backup.
With 15Pro yes the 5G works well but most areas don’t have it even near cities. Where I had the 5G I tried a speedtest app and got fast (ludicrous, plaid?) speed. No idea why I would need that in a phone.
Pixel 7 Pro. Capsule review: It works. It’s far from perfect. (If anyone knows how to tell it to STFU about my long screen timeout setting, please pass along this sanity-saving tip before I send the phone to Hanna and Lauri to pressure-test with their 300-ton hydraulic press.)
I just had to give up my iPhone 5S as to lo many apps required ios16. Now I have an iPhone XR. I actively hate the size and that I have to use two hands to do anything useful.
@Cynamon You should see if you can get a reasonable “refurb” but don’t go back more than a few years. I agree the XR is a bit big. Some gens had a “mini” but can’t remember how far back, might already be hear-obsolete.
I used to carry in “man-purse” shoulder bag but recently moved to putting in pocket so smaller size is preferable. Except for bananas for scale.
I used to wait a few years and some ages was a refurb phone to be cheap. If you get a refurb from Apple it will almost surely be new in brown box; if you get from the W site it will be hit or miss but they are good with returns.
I recently got into the age of like of yeah whatever get the new thing and have fun, my whole career was in tech possibly some of the chips in the thing. Hate to admit I have an online reservation for a 16Pro but it won’t let me actually book it till the 13th. I have a 15Pro already and will give that to my wife.
She has XR now. I had a refurb X from a few years ago but it lost current SW status last year. The old X remains as a backup and can still run most apps. Remember in most cases you can dial 911 even on a phone without a cell phone contract. Good emergency tip!
The XR will probably go obsolete with the new SW update next month. It will still work fine as a phone and for most app for a long time but won’t get new features. Ridiculous amounts of horsepower in these things.
Galaxy 23 Ultra - Samsung exclusive color
it was cool, but won’t do it again. Wasn’t worth the extra.
Used to do every 2, now will do every 3 I think, or more if I like it
Tablet is over 4 almost 5 and going out of the support window, so gotta go over to best buy and get another one of these days. (Cheaper than direct by a bit)
@Cerridwyn Had some nice Samsung tablets including an amazing big one from about 2010 which was really before iPad days even started. Still works. Each time Android OS I’m just “how do I use this again?”
Resisted at first but full Apple eco-system now. Especially if almost all friends/relatives on it. Surprised at how many things worked automatically even if I didn’t expect.
@Cerridwyn I used to get the Samsung S series phones, but for this last one, I actually did some research and found that the A series has all the features I use and is significantly cheaper. I have an A71 that was several hundred dollars less than the (then) latest S, and I don’t miss anything the S has that the A doesn’t.
@lisagd my son-in-law does that. They’re usually about a year or so behind on some of the highest end features he told me an average of two on the newest greatest whatever feature.
Got a good deal on the the Samsung Galaxy S24+ in February with an upgrade to 512GB internal storage. It supposedly will have 7 years of OS updates, so I can keep it for a while before reaching its EOL. Hopefully. Haven’t used the A.I. features yet and I’m not too thrilled with the camera.
About 4 years old- but it was an “old-version” phone when I bought it.
This is my first phone to hold up batterywise. I still have 40-50% by end of day, and I use my phone fairly heavily. Sometimes can go a couple days without charging.
It was battery issues that made all my old phones obsolete even when everything else was working OK.
@OnionSoup I remember the “back in the day” the phone battery was always swappable by opening the plastic back compartment. and could be replaced at a reasonable price. Though in fairness my sealed IPhone batteries have held up well. In a sealed alumin(in)um or titanium case. And you get at least 2meters waterproof. Watches go to 50-100m now. And can be used as dive watches/computers. Different new world.
@capnjb I can remember when I used to carry two phones. Because I worked in healthcare, our work phones were often incredibly encrypted and monitored. And so I kept my own. The last job I didn’t do it I just said no I’m using my own to hell with it because my phone was way better than the piece of crap 5-year-old iPhone they were giving out. Love my Android hate Apple. That hate goes back to what they did when they brought Steve Jobs back and how it screwed those of us who’d been Apple supporters for years. I know it’s not a unique situation. But I have a Samsung everything including my TV so what the hell
@capnjb@OnionSoup when we first started giving staff phones in my department, we got androids because of the issues with Iphones and hot spots back in the day. And they had to have the hot spots. we got androids and replaced pagers, and the onboard wan card on the laptops and saved money. they were like last years model and cost us 5 bucks. later we were getting them for 99. then they rolled communication services into IT and insisted on iPhones for the ability to remote wipe. They never worked as well for what we needed them for but that was a few models ago
@Cerridwyn@OnionSoup We can remote wipe any business phone (I work in the pharma industry, so this is a requirement). For personal phones that use MFA for authentication we have software that we can wrap around anything that touches business data… like outlook or teams. We can remote wipe those tools if the phone is lost, person quits or is fired without affecting the rest of their personal data. It sounds creepy, but it is a necessity and also very expensive and a bit of a chore to manage. The ability to do so is limited to very few individuals and the audit trails are complexly detailed. Misuse of this tool would likely end up with severe legal repercussions.
@capnjb@Cerridwyn I’ve no doubt… but angry people do stupid things. I’ve no desire to let anyone have access to do that with my phone.
Now, if work wants to provide a phone for me and pay for it, that would be fine and they could remote wipe that to their heart’s content. My wife has a separate personal/work phone.
@Cerridwyn@OnionSoup I get that. And if you just want to remote in from your laptop with VPN software, that’s fine. We’re not installing anything. You just need to be able to receive text messages for validation.
But if you want to check your email or teams messages on your personal phone, we’re going to put that in a bubble that we can pop.
@capnjb@Cerridwyn@OnionSoup for years I had a single laptop I bought for myself and would also use it for work. Then (Probably reasonable) reasons said you must use our laptop we will administer it. So it had all sorts of their monitor apps on it. But not the creepy WFH monitors I hear some companies are using now. AFAIK anyway.
So I had to carry 2 laptops if going on trips. The Dells of last few years don’t live up to standards of the high end ones 10 years ago.
@cf1 Yes I like my SE too for the size reason. The only more recent one that is nearly as small is a 12 mini. I think all the ones after that are bigger and as I keep my phone in my back pocket I want it to be completely covered by my pack jeans pocket.
@Cerridwyn@cf1@pmarin Opps someone posted down further there is a 13 mini, which, unfortunately, will be the last mini as Apple discontinued making mini’s.
Work devices are Apple. Encryption, privacy, and data back up to secure servers are the primary reasons.
Personal device is iPhone 11. It works for all my needs but the battery is running low much quicker these days.
I’m an Android fan because of its open source OS. I’ve tweaked many a phone (and bricked one or two) over the years. I no longer fiddle with it, but I still like them better than Apple. I love my Samsungs. I have a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5, and I love it. I also just purchased a new Galaxy Tab S9, trading in my older S7 for it (trade ins help keep the price down, depending on what you have).
@Cerridwyn it’s an S9+ (12.4"). I got it because the S9 only had Wi-Fi capability, and the Ultra was bigger, but more expensive, and I couldn’t justify it. I don’t remember the actual sizes of the others, but the website will have that info.
i broke my Moto One Ace, replaced the screen and had trouble with it post-repair so I just decided it was upgrade time and picked up a OnePlus 12. I don’t like Apple or Samsung. Apple for their business practices and overpriced ecosystem and man, does Samsung collect a LOT of information from your phone that you don’t even know about (I work on them under warranty, it’s cray)
I finally bought a personal phone a year and a half ago because I was starting a job search and would lose my work number again. It’s a Pixel 6a. Current work phone is an iPhone 12. I’ll use both until they stop working.
Two years.
No idea anymore. How old is the pixel 4a? It’s that old. Still working really well for me though.
Get a new one every year.
All of these options are entirely subjective.
And 3-ish years. I think.
I’ll replace it when it stops working.
(Seriously, for those of us who grew up with landlines, a “new” phone? might be 10 years old. What does “new” even mean without context?)
iPhone 7 plus.
@Kyeh I was replacing the battery and lightning port on my 7Plus when the cat jumped up on the table and sent everything flying.now I have a 12 and a cat I would send to a Haitian neighborhood in Springfield.
@Kyeh @st_ellis I am watching Sky News from UK now and the eating cats and dogs thing seems like it will live on in infamy; possibly even more in Europe than here. And this is a place with wild political swings in UK, France, Italy… and the Brexit thing where it now seems most look back and go WTF were we thinking?
Oh they are explaining the electoral college thing right now to Englanders like can you believe this is even worse than our system?
BTW you can get Sky News 24 hrs a day if you have Peacock.
@Kyeh I replaced my 8 a few years ago because it had already had a battery replacement and was swiftly declining. I didn’t think I needed a new phone. When I got one, I realized I totally did.
@DLPanther Yeah, Apple’s not going to support the 7 plus much longer; I bought a refurbished 12 pro max from Woot intending to use it but I don’t like it that much. I might trade it in at Xfinity for something else but haven’t gotten around to it.
7 years, iPhone X
Maybe will upgrade around the holidays, when the carriers offer their best deals. Then maybe i can see if 5G is really that much better
@lonocat yeah just mentioned my X story below. The X is and was still fantastic with the first OLED screen. Actually bought it as an Apple refurb but has been fine for years. But X “aged-out” of new iOS updates last year. And I think XR will retire this year. Usually you get 5 years. Still works fine but I retired it and keep it as a backup.
With 15Pro yes the 5G works well but most areas don’t have it even near cities. Where I had the 5G I tried a speedtest app and got fast (ludicrous, plaid?) speed. No idea why I would need that in a phone.
New enough still, but starting to run out of storage space.
KuoH
@kuoh that’s a spicy meatball
@kuoh Ouch. I had that happen to 2 of my Galaxy phones. One I had repaired so I could trade it in, the other I tossed.
@kuoh I don’t think you’re meant to store anything in there besides the stuff that it comes with
@agnesnutter No worries. I’m working on a battery compression algorithm that should optimize the available storage.
KuoH
I gave up on my 6s when it started running apps badly.
Now my phone is 3 years old as of Monday.
I may pay for a new battery. But basically it’s fine.
I’m also pretty fond of my pixel 4s.
Pixel 7 Pro. Capsule review: It works. It’s far from perfect. (If anyone knows how to tell it to STFU about my long screen timeout setting, please pass along this sanity-saving tip before I send the phone to Hanna and Lauri to pressure-test with their 300-ton hydraulic press.)
I just had to give up my iPhone 5S as to lo many apps required ios16. Now I have an iPhone XR. I actively hate the size and that I have to use two hands to do anything useful.
@Cynamon You should see if you can get a reasonable “refurb” but don’t go back more than a few years. I agree the XR is a bit big. Some gens had a “mini” but can’t remember how far back, might already be hear-obsolete.
I used to carry in “man-purse” shoulder bag but recently moved to putting in pocket so smaller size is preferable. Except for bananas for scale.
@Cynamon Get an iPhone 13 Mini!
@agnesnutter @Cynamon I didn’t realize there was a mini past the iphone 12 mini.
@Kidsandliz Yep! It’s about the same as the iPhone 12 Mini except that it goes to 13
@Cynamon The current iPhone SE is the same size as the 5/6/7 iPhones; I traded my old SE in for a current one last November.
I used to wait a few years and some ages was a refurb phone to be cheap. If you get a refurb from Apple it will almost surely be new in brown box; if you get from the W site it will be hit or miss but they are good with returns.
I recently got into the age of like of yeah whatever get the new thing and have fun, my whole career was in tech possibly some of the chips in the thing. Hate to admit I have an online reservation for a 16Pro but it won’t let me actually book it till the 13th. I have a 15Pro already and will give that to my wife.
She has XR now. I had a refurb X from a few years ago but it lost current SW status last year. The old X remains as a backup and can still run most apps. Remember in most cases you can dial 911 even on a phone without a cell phone contract. Good emergency tip!
The XR will probably go obsolete with the new SW update next month. It will still work fine as a phone and for most app for a long time but won’t get new features. Ridiculous amounts of horsepower in these things.
Galaxy 23 Ultra - Samsung exclusive color
it was cool, but won’t do it again. Wasn’t worth the extra.
Used to do every 2, now will do every 3 I think, or more if I like it
Tablet is over 4 almost 5 and going out of the support window, so gotta go over to best buy and get another one of these days. (Cheaper than direct by a bit)
@Cerridwyn Had some nice Samsung tablets including an amazing big one from about 2010 which was really before iPad days even started. Still works. Each time Android OS I’m just “how do I use this again?”
Resisted at first but full Apple eco-system now. Especially if almost all friends/relatives on it. Surprised at how many things worked automatically even if I didn’t expect.
@Cerridwyn I used to get the Samsung S series phones, but for this last one, I actually did some research and found that the A series has all the features I use and is significantly cheaper. I have an A71 that was several hundred dollars less than the (then) latest S, and I don’t miss anything the S has that the A doesn’t.
@lisagd my son-in-law does that. They’re usually about a year or so behind on some of the highest end features he told me an average of two on the newest greatest whatever feature.
How old is 5G now?
Got a good deal on the the Samsung Galaxy S24+ in February with an upgrade to 512GB internal storage. It supposedly will have 7 years of OS updates, so I can keep it for a while before reaching its EOL. Hopefully. Haven’t used the A.I. features yet and I’m not too thrilled with the camera.
A23 5G, so a 2 year old model, though I only bought it last year. Discounted, of course.
Bought a refurb Pixel 3a XL in January 2020, still like it.
/giphy flip phone
About 4 years old- but it was an “old-version” phone when I bought it.
This is my first phone to hold up batterywise. I still have 40-50% by end of day, and I use my phone fairly heavily. Sometimes can go a couple days without charging.
It was battery issues that made all my old phones obsolete even when everything else was working OK.
@OnionSoup I remember the “back in the day” the phone battery was always swappable by opening the plastic back compartment. and could be replaced at a reasonable price. Though in fairness my sealed IPhone batteries have held up well. In a sealed alumin(in)um or titanium case. And you get at least 2meters waterproof. Watches go to 50-100m now. And can be used as dive watches/computers. Different new world.
I’ve been doing IT for over 25 years. My dirty little geek secret is I’ve never owned a personal phone.
@capnjb I can remember when I used to carry two phones. Because I worked in healthcare, our work phones were often incredibly encrypted and monitored. And so I kept my own. The last job I didn’t do it I just said no I’m using my own to hell with it because my phone was way better than the piece of crap 5-year-old iPhone they were giving out. Love my Android hate Apple. That hate goes back to what they did when they brought Steve Jobs back and how it screwed those of us who’d been Apple supporters for years. I know it’s not a unique situation. But I have a Samsung everything including my TV so what the hell
@capnjb @Cerridwyn my work wants to put on all sorts of crap that allows them to remote wipe my phone and have admin permissions to my phone.
Forget it, I don’t need to connect to work’s network that badly or be able to get work emails outside of work hours.
Not worth it to give up power so one disgruntled employee can remote wipe everyone’s phone if he gets the hump.
@capnjb @OnionSoup when we first started giving staff phones in my department, we got androids because of the issues with Iphones and hot spots back in the day. And they had to have the hot spots. we got androids and replaced pagers, and the onboard wan card on the laptops and saved money. they were like last years model and cost us 5 bucks. later we were getting them for 99. then they rolled communication services into IT and insisted on iPhones for the ability to remote wipe. They never worked as well for what we needed them for but that was a few models ago
@Cerridwyn @OnionSoup We can remote wipe any business phone (I work in the pharma industry, so this is a requirement). For personal phones that use MFA for authentication we have software that we can wrap around anything that touches business data… like outlook or teams. We can remote wipe those tools if the phone is lost, person quits or is fired without affecting the rest of their personal data. It sounds creepy, but it is a necessity and also very expensive and a bit of a chore to manage. The ability to do so is limited to very few individuals and the audit trails are complexly detailed. Misuse of this tool would likely end up with severe legal repercussions.
@capnjb @Cerridwyn I’ve no doubt… but angry people do stupid things. I’ve no desire to let anyone have access to do that with my phone.
Now, if work wants to provide a phone for me and pay for it, that would be fine and they could remote wipe that to their heart’s content. My wife has a separate personal/work phone.
@Cerridwyn @OnionSoup I get that. And if you just want to remote in from your laptop with VPN software, that’s fine. We’re not installing anything. You just need to be able to receive text messages for validation.
But if you want to check your email or teams messages on your personal phone, we’re going to put that in a bubble that we can pop.
@capnjb @Cerridwyn @OnionSoup for years I had a single laptop I bought for myself and would also use it for work. Then (Probably reasonable) reasons said you must use our laptop we will administer it. So it had all sorts of their monitor apps on it. But not the creepy WFH monitors I hear some companies are using now. AFAIK anyway.
So I had to carry 2 laptops if going on trips. The Dells of last few years don’t live up to standards of the high end ones 10 years ago.
@capnjb @Cerridwyn @OnionSoup @pmarin What does besides taxes and interest rates?
KuoH
iPhone SE. I like the size and the touchid and the headphone jack. Just bought a new battery and it runs great. Its only 4 years old so we’ll see.
@cf1 Yes I like my SE too for the size reason. The only more recent one that is nearly as small is a 12 mini. I think all the ones after that are bigger and as I keep my phone in my back pocket I want it to be completely covered by my pack jeans pocket.
@cf1 @Kidsandliz you have pockets?
@Cerridwyn @cf1 Of course. I don’t buy jeans without pockets both front and back.
@Cerridwyn @cf1 @Kidsandliz sweat pants pockets work too. Need to be careful about the semi-pajama ones might be just a bit too informal.
@Cerridwyn @cf1 @pmarin Opps someone posted down further there is a 13 mini, which, unfortunately, will be the last mini as Apple discontinued making mini’s.
Work devices are Apple. Encryption, privacy, and data back up to secure servers are the primary reasons.
Personal device is iPhone 11. It works for all my needs but the battery is running low much quicker these days.
I’m an Android fan because of its open source OS. I’ve tweaked many a phone (and bricked one or two) over the years. I no longer fiddle with it, but I still like them better than Apple. I love my Samsungs. I have a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5, and I love it. I also just purchased a new Galaxy Tab S9, trading in my older S7 for it (trade ins help keep the price down, depending on what you have).
@DKBingham Which S9 did you buy? What are the differences. I need to do the same.
@Cerridwyn it’s an S9+ (12.4"). I got it because the S9 only had Wi-Fi capability, and the Ultra was bigger, but more expensive, and I couldn’t justify it. I don’t remember the actual sizes of the others, but the website will have that info.
Pixel 8Pro, got it around this time last year.
i broke my Moto One Ace, replaced the screen and had trouble with it post-repair so I just decided it was upgrade time and picked up a OnePlus 12. I don’t like Apple or Samsung. Apple for their business practices and overpriced ecosystem and man, does Samsung collect a LOT of information from your phone that you don’t even know about (I work on them under warranty, it’s cray)
Samsung Galaxy S10+, released in March 2019. You be the judge.
I finally bought a personal phone a year and a half ago because I was starting a job search and would lose my work number again. It’s a Pixel 6a. Current work phone is an iPhone 12. I’ll use both until they stop working.