Most of my phones seem to die in 2 to 3 years so I don't really see them as a long term investment. Maybe I just have bad luck.
I'd have thought 3 years is the most you'd usefully get out of a smartphone. The technology moves so fast. I got a good 3 years out of my first iPhone 3G but it was showing it's age at the end, for sure.
The longest I've kept a phone was for 5 years. My trusty old Sony Ericsson w810. Skinny little fella and survived all manner of scrapes and drops. Current smartphones will probably last ages unless you're into smartphone gaming
I'll probably keep this 4s for the next couple of years to get my money's worth. You can definitely see the jumps in what they can do in terms of apps and gaming. My old phone's 16GB was pushed after 2 years - I've currently got 53GB used on this phone after 5 months. Crazy, need to have a clean out I reckon.
If you think about it, 2-3 years is a long time considering you will be using this device on a daily basis. This is generally the life of a video card for a pc gamer too and they spend around the same type of cash.
Yes but the chance of dropping a video card into the toilet is much lower than dropping a phone into the toilet.
The solution to that is not to have a phone in your hand while holding your junk when urinating. And if you drop your phone in the toilet.. it's not bad luck......
Lets see. I've had at least 2 phones that needed a new battery at 2 years. One phone that got left in the yard over night and got wet. That was covered by a warranty. One phone where an LCD screen stopped working at 2.5 years, and my current one which no longer has a working touch response at 1.5 years. I've had one phone that has never had a problem and all and my work Blackberries have never had a problem.
I had a Mitsubishi phone in 1998 that got stolen in about 6 months after I had it. Then I got a Nokia phone until 2001 and upgraded to another Nokia phone after that. Both worked fine. I ended tossing those some time after though. Then I got a Samsung phone in 2003 and then Sanyo phone in late 2006. I still have those phones and they work fine. Then I got an HTC Touch Pro in 2008 that was falling apart by itself. That phone had the worst QA issues. Threw that phone away in 2009 when I got my Palm Pre. Then upgraded to HTC EVO in 2010. And then moved to my current Samsung Galaxy S II sprint variant earlier this year.. Palm Pre still works.
My HTC touch fell apart too lol but that was after 2 years. I wasn't hardly the most demanding user though, I'm sure you used it lots more than I did.
Well, the thing that killed me with the Touch Pro was that the keyboard was the first thing to go. Jesus Christ, the fucking keyboard? Shortly after that, the camera died too. OK, I can take things like a volume knob dying, or the battery door breaking.. but 2 important components to this thing just dying like that? The other kicker was that I had 2 other friends that had this phone and they swapped through 4-5 of these things too since every single one ended up breaking somewhere too.
the hinges on that thing were just begging to break plus it was big and heavy so scratches just felt incompetent somehow so they just dug deeper it seemed. other than that... well I did hate the buttons with a fury. But I am surprised to hear about the camera, anyway.
Ha! The TouchPro is such a SERO throwback. I think I had that with a $40 500 minute, unlimited text, picture messaging, and 2g data. I don't know how Bfun lasts so long with phones. I typically swap out for the latest < 6 months, the longest phone I've had is my current iPhone @ 9 months. I'll be upgrading by the end of summer, probably GalaxyS3, the iPhone5 has a slim shot.
After my experiences with the AT&T Tilt, I tend to avoid anything by HTC like the plague. That phone was so bad it was hilarious.
I had one of those... It was heavier than most current laptops. HTC has come a long way though. The quality isn't as good as Samsung but EVERY worthwhile widget is a copy from HTC Sense.
I got the Exhibit II 4G last night for a tidy sum of $174. That seems like a good deal to me. So far I’m really liking it. Typing is way easier that I thought it would be. The keyboard is very accurate. Call quality is fine although perhaps not as clear as Verizon. My Dad can hear me just fine and he’s half deaf. I plan to root it soon so I can get rid of some of the tMobile junk on it. I’m not sure if I’ll try CM9. On speed test I’ve been getting about 900Kbs up and down on a 3G network.
It was the data plan that won me over. $80 for unlimited talk, txt, and web on two phones. Thats what I pay right now for 2 regular phones with limited talk and text on Verizon.
If it's not too buggy for your phone, you should try aokp. it took over cm9 in popularity currently. It's basically cm9 with a bunch of new features.
Did some research and CM9 is almost final but aokp is still pretty buggy and the work on it has stopped.