> Most new phones are pretty damn good, even the mid range.
For the first week, at least. Then they start to accumulate cruft and slow down, eventually becoming barely usable.
I've experienced it in the past. I see it happen for my friends and family. I decided some time ago to save up that $750 - $1k and go for the high-range phones, so that I can use them for two or three years without daily frustrations.
The top-most commenter is right. Phones are used even more frequently than cars; for many, even more frequently than other types of computers combined. It's one of those things it's not worth to cheap out on - like a mattress or an office chair.
(Now, of course part of me is happy for the mid-range phones costing what they do, because this is why high-end phones cost $1k and not $10k.)
I disagree - I've used a $300 stock android phone for just over a year now, and I haven't really run into any "cruft" issues. But, poor android performance is a very valid problem with android.
Agree with this - cheap Android phones are what they are, but mid-range hardware is astonishing and if you don't install clutter, you don't get clutter.
(I even remove/disable any Facebook clients etc, only use Chrome to access services. Perhaps this is why I'm happy.)
I have a Nexus 5X and then I bought my wife a Moto G4 plus and I was really impressed with her phone which was a good amount cheaper than mine.
We've both had them for a while now and they are both good phones but I think I'll spend less on my next phone since I can and still get something that works very well.
300-400$ range phones work perfectly well for years and there's now even a staggering amount of pretty good phones covering most usecases from companies like Xiaomi that can be bought for as low as 150$ and they still run about as well as an iPhone 5c.
So they run as well as a 4 year old phone with a 5 year old CPU/GPU? Sounds... not good. Not to mention you can get that 5C for about $100 today, so $50 less than your Xiaomi.
My point was - they run well enough, do their job and are really affordable (after all, people were happy with performance of iPhone 5 / 5C weren't they ;).
iPhones (especially refurbished ones) aren't here (I do understand that situation in US is a bit better).
I've been using a 5s for 3 years now, and I don't have much desire to replace it. I don't find it the least bit slow. The only time I get frustrated with it is when network performance is slow or reception is bad, but that happens with any phone.
The 5S was indeed a champ. You might want to hold off on iOS 11, though; I’ve been running a beta on an iPad with the same A7 cpu, and it just can’t keep up.
(Perhaps the 5S wont have it so bad given that it won’t have to deal with the new springboard and multitasking...)
> Then they start to accumulate cruft and slow down, eventually becoming barely usable.
When naive users install 3 different weather widgets, 2 battery meters and a custom launcher, you start to understand why people say mid-range phones start to slow down.
For the first week, at least. Then they start to accumulate cruft and slow down, eventually becoming barely usable.
I've experienced it in the past. I see it happen for my friends and family. I decided some time ago to save up that $750 - $1k and go for the high-range phones, so that I can use them for two or three years without daily frustrations.
The top-most commenter is right. Phones are used even more frequently than cars; for many, even more frequently than other types of computers combined. It's one of those things it's not worth to cheap out on - like a mattress or an office chair.
(Now, of course part of me is happy for the mid-range phones costing what they do, because this is why high-end phones cost $1k and not $10k.)