I waited 8 year to get a newer phoner that was better than my previous phone in all respects at the same price. And even then it was mostly a convenience upgrade because my old phone was still working well.
Why the hell would it be worth it to lease a phone?
It depends a lot on how heavily you use your phones. I’m a heavy user and my batteries degrade heavily in 2-3 years. That leads to overheating, poor performance, and of course poor battery life.
The cost of replacing a battery is high for most phones. Sometimes higher than buying a new phone at a similar level of performance.
I’m doing 1-2 battery cycles per day. A light user might go through battery cycles at a quarter of my rate, and would not have those problems.
If your current plan is to buy the latest and greatest phone today, sell it in two years, and then buy a new top of the line phone, then Apple’s new lease program looks like an attractive option. They’ve priced it such that, over the course of the lease, you end up paying about the cost of purchasing the phone minus its resale value. Leasing looks convenient because it saves you from having to find a buyer.
It also keeps phones out of the secondary market, which benefits Apple. Off lease phones are used for warranty replacements, or sold as refurbished through official storefronts instead of person to person.
You will own nothing and like it
You should buy it. Every time. Fuck subscriptions.
some subscriptions are fine though, like email or a vpn.
you could argue there should be no need for a vpn but… it is what it is
Lease your phone so that you have enough money to finance a pizza.
“YOU OWN NOTHING!!”
And you love it!! Whether you like it or not.
Maybe, if there’s a way to fake every single detail then unlock the bootloader and load another OS, that is unless the GSM module dosen’t has some unique ID
Serious question: How is subsiding a phone over three years and then trading it in at the end of those three years to get another phone any different from leasing ?
Yes
An important thing to note here is that this isn’t anything new. This is what a significant amount of people have already been doing for years through their carrier. I don’t have any statistics on hand for this, but I personally don’t know a single person who has bought their phone outright. Everyone just leases their phone through their carrier around here, and upgrades as soon as they’re allowed. Hearing people complain about their cellphone plan cost increasing or poor cell service but being unable to switch carriers until their phone is paid off is a common thing to hear, as carriers have been using their phone leasing programs as a substitute for plan contracts for awhile now.
Leasing your phone through your carrier with the ability to buy or turn it in at the end of the term has been the name of the game for a very long time. What Apple and Samsung are doing is just trying to entice you into going direct through them instead of your carrier which is actually a good thing.
If you’ve been buying your phone outright then you shouldn’t use a program like this, but if you’ve been leasing your phone through your carrier I’d actually recommend switching to just doing the same thing directly through the manufacturer since it frees you up to switch carriers whenever you want.
I buy my phone’s on either back market or swappa. Paid half of the price for a perfectly good phone. That are guaranteed to work too
I should have kept reading before posting. You basically said the same thing I did only better. 😂
I want an essential phone. Not too basic and not too “smart”.
The only thing prompting phone replacement for me was battery life. And nearly all phones have shit ability to replace batteries (for now - EU rules incoming).
I bought a Fairphone 6 with /e/OS. I’ve left Big Tech behind. And I have a phone where I can easily replace the components. I don’t want to swap devices for 4-5 years, which makes ownership far more cost effective than leasing.
Also – with leasing, what happens when the renter is done with it? E waste, just like we have today.
No they just sell the devices to the secondary market
Biggest issue is software support. You really do not want to run your banking app on an older, unpatched Android version
Or at least that’s what big tech wants you to think
Don’t worry the banking software running those apps is far older, unpatched, and just as vulnerable.
Oneplus 13 has two day battery life for me. Best phone I’ve ever owned. But I heard they are not going to release oneplus phones in Europe anymore so that sucks a lot. I dont want anything else.
Initially I used to only buy new phones when my phone became too slow - roughly every 6-7 years. Now I get refurbished or get it from someone else for free and replace the battery. My current phone is from 2018 and still works well. Why would I replace it?
The way I read that title: Apple and Samsung stopped innovating, now sales aren’t growing, so it’s time for enshittification.
Or, maybe their CEOs can stick them in their asses.
No, and also fuck off with that.
