Ask HN: At what point you already had everything you needed from a smartphone?

by sdwolfz on 9/9/2024, 8:35:28 PM with 4 comments
Inspired from this reply on the recently released smartphone:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41492286

At what point did you feel like you had everything you needed from your phone?

Fro me it was my Samsung S5. It had great performance, long batery life, replaceable even, a good camera, thinner than current smartphones, a nice large screen... just all around everything I needed. And I only paid around 180£ for it in 2015-ish (can't remember the date exactly).

The only reasons I replaced it was that I wanted to finally own a brand new phone (this was bought second hand) and that even lineagoeos stopped updates for it at a certain time.

Do you also feel like this? That the newer phones release have an insignificant bump in functionality for a enourmous bump in price?

  • by janmarsal on 9/9/2024, 9:08:56 PM

    I've never been too excited about smartphones. They took FM radio from me and recently they've even tried to take the a-jack from me, so in a way we're regressing. Honestly I'm good with just the hotspot and a GPS. I don't need much from a phone.

    However, at the same time I don't think I still have what I want from my phone. Mainly because the operating systems for phones are trash. I'm waiting for the day when it becomes the norm that people don't even have work laptops anymore. Just a phone with a good desktop OS that they can plug to some dumb-end at their work or home office. I'm sure it's already possible to some extend. Just not practical.

  • by theothertimcook on 9/10/2024, 12:41:01 AM

    2008 - Nokia e63.

    It had the near perfect balance of utility, usability, and durability.

    Granted it didn't do everything as well as later devices, at a cost of about $200 AUD it was an awesome bit of kit.

    Full qwerty keyboard, multi day battery, wifi, Bluetooth, gps, could be used as a weapon or beer opener if required.

    No doomscrolling, no single user/purpose apps, just a fucking solid communication device.

  • by allears on 9/9/2024, 9:00:40 PM

    Cameras (and camera software) get better. Other than that, I totally agree. And if you're not much into photography, that may not matter. I probably only use 10-15% of the features anyway.

  • by JohnFen on 9/9/2024, 8:40:37 PM

    I don't remember the model, but it was around 2010 or so. Pretty much all of the changes since then have been irrelevant to me, and a few have made the phones less fit for my purposes.