What's the point of buying new phones every years?
Other than your carrier give it for free or cheap, I don't really see the reason why should you buy new phone. I've been using Redmi Note 9 for past 3 years and recently got my had on Poco F5. I don't see the point of my 'upgrade'. I sold it and come back to my Note 9.
Gaming? Most of them are p2w or microtransaction garbage or just gimped version of its PC/Console counterpart. I mean, $400 still get you PS4, TV and Switch if you don't mind buying used. At least here where I live.
Storage? Dude, newer phone wont even let you have SD Card.
Features? Well, all I see is newer phones take more features than it adds. Headphone jack, more ads, and repairability are to name a few.
Battery? Just replace them. However, my Note 9 still get through day with one 80% charge in the dawn. Which takes 1 hour.
I am genuinely curious why newer phone always selling like hot cakes. Since there's virtually no difference between 4gb of RAM and 12gb of RAM, or 12mp camera and 100mp camera on phone.
Check out the Fairphone; you can replace parts like battery and the production line tends to be (more) sustainable. They also provide security updates for 5+ years.
They don't have really high-end phones though, but personally I think most moderate phones nowadays are fine for practically all usecases. For me it works out fine, as I already used mid-range phones for a couple of years.
I hope they will do something like a subscription for even longer updates (if enough people are interested). Don't need a new phone if this keeps working / being repairable.
I love the idea of Fairphone but it's too pricy for me unfortunately. my current phone (Redmi Note 10 Pro) only cost £150 ($195) and it's pretty much the perfect phone for my minimal needs.
That's of course fair (yes.. intended). They are indeed expensive compared to many other phones, especially mid-rangers. It took me a while to decide to switch.
For anyone who can easily afford it though, it might be something to keep in the back of your head perhaps in the future :) I hope this small trend of replacable parts and longtime security support in phones continues.