A Smartphone That Lasts a Decade? Yes, It’s Possible | Hacker News Reader

A Smartphone That Lasts a Decade? Yes, It’s Possible

nytimes.com

15 pointsmikece14 comments

My longest living e-device is Kindle both in 2014. There is no perceived loss of value. So it should be important to weight the user expectations into the equation. But the problem is finding the right TAM to make this doable. Tech is converging and it looks like that we are at the point where we could have a device with long living tech base. But Fairphone with e-ink screen, decent camera and battery would be something I would use for a decade.

I'm the guy that used his S2 till it broke and now I'm using an Xperia that's reaching 6 years in 2 months. I don't use my phone for anything else then messaging and browsing. Both phones worked flawlessly and battery life degradation is almost unnoticeable. My Xperia can now run only 1.5 days instead of 2. No problem when it's charging every night anyway.

The iPhone 8 was released on September 22, 2017 and I got one almost immediately, and still use it. So I'm at almost half a decade now; here's to half a decade more! I suspect I'll have to replace the battery at some point.

I use a "brand new" 16" M1 because it makes a huge difference.

I use an 8-year-old iPhone 6s because what difference does it make? I'm not a pro photographer or videographer, nor a mobile gamer.

Are a few extra centimeters and an OLED screen and amazing camera going to change my experience of my mobile device?

There's nothing at night in the dark I need to take photos of.

Yeah, for awhile each new iPhone was an incredible update; it felt like the flurry of computer upgrades I experienced in the late 90s/early 2000s (which is why Weird Al mentioned "upgrading twice a day" - it wasn't that fast but definitely remember upgrading once a month; build new computer, use it, sell it off and build another new one that would be noticeably better).

I suspect many people upgrade phones now just because the battery is getting old and the cost of replacing the phone is a significant portion of the "free" one they can get by turning it in to their carrier.

I don't think it can be done. Not really. The hardware can be done. But once the manufacturer stops selling the phone, the number of users starts dwindling, and porting a new version of the OS to an old device can be hard work, depending on what the OS changes.

At some point porting new versions of the OS will no longer make sense given the remaining user base, and I find it really difficult to believe that that point will only be reached after >10 years.

In notebook land, theres Framework, whose making totally repairable and upgradeable laptops, and so far they even released alderlake upgrades for their first model, iirc. Hopefully the notion of keeping a given frame and upgrading it as you need it for years at a time catches on, and hopefully that can all spread to phones, especially as the phone market matures.

A few people are trying for phones too. Fairphone pushed an upgrade earlier this year for the Fairphone 2, which is six years old. Very respectable.

It's Android 10 though, not 12, which makes me wonder whether they have run into the same issues as the Lineageos people (see https://lineageos.org/Changelog-26/ for details) and that even with their dedication, Fairphone will stop before a decade has passed.

(Invective.) I think my phone is breaking down. Not yet five years old. (Invective Invective invective.)

I used a Moto G4 for 7 years, and a few months ago upgraded to a 4 year old Samsung S9 my brother gave me. 10 years should be doable for my relatively light use.

If PC can last 10+ years why wouldn't smartphone be able to last that long.

"Give this article" link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/technology/personaltech/s...

My Galaxy S2 still works, it even has decent battery life (at least a day). But would I want to use it? No. I like technological improvements. I buy a new phone because I want new capabilities - and that's bound to its computing performance. If I wanted to just call and send SMS, I would've kept using my Sony Ericsson from 2007, that one also still works flawlessly.

Most people I know - techies or not, even the grandmas - have drawers full of working phones. Clearly longevity is not the problem.

When they are shut down they are not working. I would like to see some statistics about how many phones make it to 10 years. (dendrites growing). I shall also chech my phones in the basement before they catch fire :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com