Why I refuse to upgrade.

take a look at this graph it's the average smartphone upgrade cycle in the US according to statista and you'll see that it's been increasing since 2022 that means that the general public are now holding on to their devices for longer and that isn't surprising mobile phones especially high-end ones have sat at over four figure price tags for a few years now and that's crazy money to spend on something that you only plan on upgrading every one or 2 years but it does make a little more sense when you intend on keeping it for 5 years or more but the phone that I've been using isn't one of those Flagship phones it's a a cutdown Samsung Galaxy S21 Fe it's been my work phone for over a year and I don't intend on swapping it out here's why that is I bet you know someone who still rocks one of those older iPhones with the fat top and bottom bezels and there's a reason for that iPhones stay good for long after their contract period stuff like their cameras their performance heck even something as simple as the compatibility with the latest applications and app updates and companies like Samsung and Google have been quietly making their phones better for long-term usage too the marketing tactic of telling the customer you need a new phone isn't working as well anymore and that graph that you saw at the beginning of the video is just proof of this keep in mind by the way that I have access to all manner of different smartphones from the Google pixel 8 Pro to the latest Galaxy but this phone stays in my pocket it's three generations old was never the best phone when it launched and yet I have no problem using it every single day it runs the latest version of Android which is currently Android 14 with Samsung one ui6 a top of it in fact it's due to receive Android 15 this year with another year of security patches after that so I'm not going to run into any kind of app incompatibility anytime soon and it's not all numbers and specs either actually using this thing daily I've not run into any significant slowdowns or crashes I haven't felt limited by what the Galaxy S21 Fe can offer and actually it being specifically this model has its benefits the plastic back and tough metal rails mean that I don't run a case on it making it far more pocketable which is convenient since it comes with me absolutely everywhere oh and that lower price tag means I'm less worried about babying the thing because to be quite Frank with you I don't care as much if it gets the odd scuff or scrape which is crucial because I also don't want to be slowed down by the pieces of tech that I'm using cameras are an important component to me as a videographer and though I'm not completely delusional I know for a fact these are not the best cameras on a smartphone even one on this old they are still pretty good and since the main sensor is the one that you would have found in the full fat S21 you can expect this thing to continue to take good photos and videos you could quite easily use this thing to shoot your social footage and I have done on several occasions when I'm doing something to do with SmartWatches or wearables I'm out in the field and I don't have my big camera with me I will use this camera to take little Snippets of video to include in the review the Ultra HD 60p and 30p video comes out pretty good for a cutd down model of a phone that's a few years old in fact even the selfie camera on this phone is capable of portrait video so isolating the subject in say a Tik Tok or real or a short is easy to do so without any kind of editing right on the camera which is quite impressive for a phone of this age right its ancillary cameras are a little weak compared to what you'd find in a good mid-ranger or Flagship killer these days with less dynamic range and some oversharpening going on here too but that's almost irrelevant when you consider the dollar value of this phone it's less than $250 on the used Market that's a quarter of the cost of a flagship smartphone in 2024 for a phone that's still going to receive 2 years of updates that's pretty incredible value for money a better actually in the US thanks to Samsung's unfavorable decision to include its worst performing exos ship outside of the US and China so the performance is good software support is still reasonable and the cameras aren't bad either but I'd argue that the S21 fe's Best Hardware feature is its display it's a 6.4 in full HD Plus 120 HZ AMOLED which boils down to just a fast bright sharp display that thanks to Samsung's solid color calibration is also Punchy and really enjoyable to use this High refresh rate display might be one of the key factors in keeping this phone from feeling old or sluggish compared to the latest devices it's a peach of a panel I don't watch loads of video on here but when I do it's arguably more enjoyable than some of the newer more expensive phones because Samsung's color calibration is fantastic honestly battery life on a phone like this is going to vary quite a lot has the phone been kept above 80% a lot has it been fast charged has it been Wireless charg chared a lot both of which do heat up the battery more if the answer is no to all of those you can expect pretty good all day battery life but if the answer is yes it's likely that the cell will have been worn and that you will have to get it replaced which is good news because if you do replace it you now know you have a brand new battery and your phone should last you a lot longer between charges and that service can be done for around $150 a lot less than a smartphone but above all else I think the reason that this three generation old phone still feels good is that there hasn't been any major breakthrough in mobile tech for a little while innovation has stagnated improvements in most areas have slowed down and phones age way better now than say back in the Galaxy S3 days in fact I'd say the Android phones are right up there with iPhones when it comes to long-term viability especially when you take into account the likes of the pixel 8 and Galaxy s24 whose updates policies have been massively extended when was the last time you saw a phone launch and just had to buy the device anyone for me it was probably the pixel 6 Pro because of its super premium design and Periscope zoom camera and before that maybe it was the Huawei mate 20 Pro the current crop of smartphones is better than ever there's absolutely no doubt about that but they aren't what I'd call groundbreaking at least compared to a few Generations ago system on chips have been fast enough for a while we've had high refresh rate screens on most phones for a few years and smartphone camera systems haven't massively leapt up from the ones from a couple of generations ago there have been incremental upgrades for sure but nothing major in fact phones are only going to get better at staying good Google Samsung and OnePlus have all come out with longer software update policies for their smart smartphones and the phones themselves are specs to the gills so should hold up from that perspective too it wasn't long ago that 16 GB of RAM in a desktop computer would have seemed crazy and yet that's not even the most amount of memory available in a smartphone today there are devices out there with 24 gigs of RAM 24 GB so if you're the owner of a new high-end smartphone and you feel the edge to upgrade in the next 2 years consider not doing that ask yourself if a new phone will make your life meaningfully better by doing something that your current phone simply can't smartphones are getting good at getting old and my little Galaxy S21 Fe is the perfect example of that let me know if you own an older smartphone in the comments I'd love to see what kinds of devices you're rocking anyone on a Galaxy s10e or OnePlus 7t I have a particular soft spot for those also hit like And subscribe if you enjoyed today's content and would like to support the channel I've been Ryan Thomas with Android police and I'll catch you later cheers

Channel: Android Police

Views: 712,402

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Id: 4Hdl43ZRfjQ

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 22 2024