[9thsphinx]

Originally Posted by GTO

Looks wise, I still prefer my sleek & slim S6 Edge.
...

I feel like the guy who sold a 5 year old Jetta 2.0 TDI and bought a new Octavia. It feels fresher & newer and has some more kit, but isn't much of an upgrade IMHO. I thought I'm getting an Octavia vRS, but hey, this one turned out to be the good old 2.0 TDI only.

I completely agree and have the same thought process. And this is probably the only reason I have stuck with my S6 edge till date. It's the one with the 128 GB storage, so it's not even the storage that I find I am running short of and warrants an upgrade.

The display is flawless, its fast enough, does the job, the ergonomics are just right and damn that curved screen is still a looker!

Unless some company comes up with a completely different experience of a phone, I don't see any logical reason to upgrade.

[amoghchaphalkar]

Completely agree with the sentiment here.

I am using the iPhone 6S+ for close to three years. Thrice I have added the iPhone X to the shopping cart, only not to buy it. Just did not see the value in the premium. The 6s+ works like a charm, and after the battery replacement, it is almost as good as new. iOS 12 has made it even better!

Recently got the Pixel 2 XL and looks like it will serve me well for the next 3-4 years. This is a far cry from the past where I used to replace phones every 15-18 months.

[Mission_PGPX]

Originally Posted by GTO

Been using it and I really love the phone, but am wondering if the phone is actually "3 years ahead"? Has cellphone development peaked for the time being?

This is the reason I kind of stay 2 years behind in using flagship phones. I am so impressed with your pre-worshiped thoughts, that i resort to olx for phones. The last time i bought a new phone was in 2010, blackberry basic model. After that its google all the way, nexus4, 5 and now running on pixel. The depreciation here for flagship model is quite good once the new gen is launched. I bought by pixel 128 GB, 8 months back in 21K, with warranty and bill. waiting for pixel 3 to launch now so that i can upgrade to pixel 2 XL. Trust me, the google hardware is like german diesels. very solid.

[Jaggu]

I carry both apple and android devices since last few years, but my primary device always have been an apple, since iphone 3G days. Whatever said and done, the hardware software integration that apple has cannot be matched by androids. Pixel from google is the closest that can be used as comparison from android end. Apple's edge is due to the complete control of software and hardware spec that apple has on it's devices Vs android which has to support zillion vendors, very similar to Mac and Windows situation.

Now coming to the evolution Vs price, of course these companies are no saints and are sucking the consumers dry with each upgrade. Is it quantum jump that justifies the price hike? it is debatable. But last week i had an opportunity to use iphone 7 along with my X and the difference is apparent, very very apparent. Difference mind you is almost 80% in price which definitely is not something i agree with on the other hand. Apple is just playing smart keeping 3 generation old device selling along with current model and make use of it as cheaper phone for wider market share (while providing a common user with almost similar experience). Clever!

So my tactic is simple - buy cheapest android which supports latest OS (ideally vanila OS) use it for 12-24 months and make use of a good exchange deal to upgrade. Never spend more than 15-20k for these, you will recover 30-50% cost with exchange and upgrade deals if you sell within a year-year and half. In short buy cheap androids, upgrade soon and cut losses.

For apple- buy only the substantial upgrades, i.e if you have a "y" model don't buy "yS" wait for "z" or something like an "x". Keep it safe and run it for 3-4 years where you would still get about 40% resale along with offers, cashback and upgrade. Coming to think of it i might make it less frequent if offers and cash backs are withdrawn lol

Most important thing to keep in mind, electronic gadgets are one of the fastest depreciating assets, so be smart while investing on that smart phone.

[tchsvy]

One thing that I really like about this evolution is that the gap between high end smartphones and mid tier smartphones is narrowing down, Qualcomm's 600 series processors are on par with the 800s of yesteryear. And the recent unveiling of SD 710 aimed at mid range smartphones with 10nm tech is icing on the cake in this regard.

IMHO, its not about specs and features anymore, it's more about how you deliver these to the end user, that's why OEMs are using lots of fancy terms to differentiate these features now, Camera: it's just not about pixels now, Disaplay: it's just not about resolution anymore, etc., but coming back to the question, no, smartphones haven't peaked, yet. There are many things to be offered in the coming years, and changes in my opinion will be revolutionary. 5G, Foldable screens.. it's going to be interesting!

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by Sheel

Guys, any recommendation for a good android watch and ear-pods?

Try the Samsung Gear S3 for Android watch and for ear pods I would suggested Apple Airpods if you were using iPhone. But for Android phones, you might have to settle with a wireless earphone something like Bose SoundSport wireless.

[landcruiser123]

Yes, phones have peaked. Things like network capability (4G and Wifi) don't really have a day to day impact on most of our lives. The only new innovations I've seen are dual cameras and edge to edge displays.

But there are serious innovations coming on the software side with AI and ML picking up.

[rahul_kej]

If i had to compare phone to cars and had to buy it accordingly then:

Processor=Engine Capacity

Ram=BHP

Inbuilt Storage=Size of vehicle

Battery mah= Fuel Tank Range

Dual Flash= Bi-projector headlamps

Finger print sensor=Start stop button

Face Unlock= Smart band

This post is just on a lighter note, please don't take it seriously but yes technology is improving and even cars and mobiles are improving though few upgrades are not that prominent and noticeable.

Try playing Pubg in different phones and we will come to know the difference.

[Raj_RD]

Well, i have been using a v20 for a little over a year and it is no way as fast that it was like a year ago. I also use a iPhone se and it has been almost 2 years, but with regular updates, it's performance is really like it used to be. The real advantage of buying a flagship are the regular updates. My v20 was last updated in Dec '17, but if it was a flagship it would've received regular updates.

[MaheshY1]

The most I've spent on a phone is Rs. 32k on the 5S for my wife. In about 4 months, it suffered water damage and died. For the next 8 months, I paid the EMI for a dead phone.

That's when I decided to spend no more than 10k on phones and stay well within my budget. My current phone - 10.or G - was recently going for Rs. 5500 on Amazon. I bought it for Rs. 6400. It does all that my Galaxy J7 (gen1) did and more. Everything is faster. It also lasts longer on every charge. I miss the deep blacks of the AMOLED, though. Speed is no longer a concern. They're all fast enough. I think I can afford to wait for half-a-second every time I launch an app rather than spend another 30k for that "speed."

I used the J7 for 2 years and hoped to keep it for another 2. I had replaced the display and the battery days before losing it. But I'm more than happy with my budget phone and don't feel like I'm missing out. In fact, if I can migrate to the iPad (lying idle for the past 6 months) for media consumption, then I may be able to survive on the JioPhone 2 as well. Plus, I have a thing for QWERTY phones. Google's investment in KaiOS will make it almost adequate for me.

They're all the same these days. They all look like bricks. And have ugly notches. A distinguishable design is no longer a priority for the manufacturers. You can no longer have a phone that makes a statement.

The swiveling Sony W550, the flippin Moto RAZR, the transparent Xperia Pureness, the laptop-ish Nokia Communicators, and the circular Moto Aura had unique design elements that stood out back in the day and made them lust-worthy. I long for those simpler times. I think it's this 'peak' that's making me reconsider feature phones.

[sandeepmohan]

There has been significant strides in technology and speed on smartphones. Our usage patterns are such that you would rarely ever tap into all these benefits.

A simple test is browsing speed. Pick up a 3 year old, top of the line android and compare the browser page load times to a phone that has the new Qualcomm 845 based chip. You should notice a day and night difference.

You will notice similar differences in Image Editing and other complex, compute intense tasks. With the former, you are looking at an almost 3x improvement in speed. Then again, how often do you sit and edit photos on your phone. Response when switching between applications is much faster too.

Very rarely do we work our phones to the limit. The only exception being the battery. This is about the only area where I have not seen improvement. A Samsung S6 when new lasts just as long as the latest iteration of the same model (or S9).

By the end of the day, my iphone 6 shows that I still have 40% juice left on the battery. An indicator that an upgrade is not really required cause I do not use my phone all that much. However; if I pick up a new iphone, I will notice that it does everything so much faster. Even something as simple as finger print unlock is faster on a iphone 7 (Forget X).

It may seem that phones have peaked on technology. Today, it is more about bells and whistles(Face ID, triple lens, quad hd camera, etc). We need to ask ourselves, what are we doing different with our phones from 3 years ago and does that warrant an upgrade to the latest and greatest. If you are a casual user, probably not. Business user; Absolutely.

[aniyo]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

It may seem that phones have peaked on technology. Today, it is more about bells and whistles(Face ID, triple lens, quad hd camera, etc). We need to ask ourselves, what are we doing different with our phones from 3 years ago and does that warrant an upgrade to the latest and greatest. If you are a casual user, probably not. Business user; Absolutely.

Exactly. Apart from better media consumption, we in fact have gone a bit backward from a business perspective when comparing to Blackberry days. Those were robust built phones focused on productivity and security.

Today almost all phones look the same more so after the putting on the phone cover.

The apps which we use are limited to about 30 max. The newer gen phones make sense if one is using for gaming and intensive multimedia. Heck even a Full HD screen and Quad Hd screen are almost similar unless you really look deep into the screen.

Companies have to show growth and need our money and in return they give us bragging rights and a "feeling" of a better phones.

[roby_dk]

Phones I owned so far:

Nokia 2100 - This was my first phone when I was in school sometime near 2003, a basic device.

Nokia 7610 - Superb phone but it was at service center most of the time while I got replacement for it several times.

Sony Ericsson P910i - This was the best and most handsome phone I ever had. Amazing sound quality with the flip keyboard which can be detached, extendable memory and a big display screen were delight. It had a humble stylus which was its USP at that time.

Sony Ericsson P1i - Didn't find any reason to upgrade from P910 but since it was getting older I went for this phone which was the last phone which I liked before switching to Samsung smartphones.


While I owned the Note series I pushed my better half for the S series.

Samsung S2 > S3 > S4 > S5
Samsung Note2 > Note 3 > Note 4

I honestly hate apple phones and devices while many people go gaga over them. Puny screen in earlier models and low specs were enough for me to never touch any apple phone. Somehow I developed a feeling of hatred against the brand itself and took a plunge to never own any apple.

With ever increasing prices of Smart phones and our usage being limited to message and phone calls now we both switched to One plus brand and I own OP3 and my wife have OP5. We got almost all features we had in Samsung with much lesser price tag and the frequent upgrades which used to be there came to an end. Planning to upgrade to OP6 for the better camera and display although no issues with my current possession. I must say the One plus is really a good brand and is definitely on par with Samsung/Apple at a much lower price.

There is no end to Technology. We will have more developments in electronic gadgets. Mobile phone's next level is to compete with DSLR's. Strange we do not have any advancement in battery section there is a lot of scope there.

[SPARKled]

Absolutely agree with you here. As someone else has also mentioned we are seeing focus on providing bigger screens, multiple cameras and fatter batteries in slim and light form factors as the major areas of progress in mobile phone technology. My Nexus 4 from a few years ago felt as good as my latest phones with bigger batteries, more RAM and bigger storage. I have Infact stopped buying expensive phones since long as I have realized that the flag ships no longer offer anything extra over popular phones for the masses that cost 2-3 times lesser. I think it's only a better camera that really separates a real high end flag ship phone from a mid tier mass model phone today. I mean just compare a Samsung or a Sony flag ship today to a redmi note 5 pro and similar phones. Except for a faster processor and a better camera I really don't see any reason to spend that kind of money on a true flag ship anymore, especially if you are not a big time gamer. The budget flagships as I call them, like OP6 and the Asus zen phone 5z are what I call real value for money flagships, if a high end processor for gaming and all the bells and whistles is what one really wants. Well that's just my opinion btw.

[asingh1977]

The phones these days are just getting too big, if it hurts in the pocket, something is not right. I was using a Lumia 730 (yes, yes) for the past 3 years. When it deteriorated (surface looked bad, phone was good), I decided "dumb - down" my approach in terms of real estate (a huge metric for phone prices these days), and get the smallest device with stability. Answer: iPhone SE ~19K online. I hardly feel I am missing anything from a flagship.

On the other hand I still have a mint new Moto Razr V3. All steel cold. I sometimes wonder if I install a SIM and use it, how it will feel. Cut off from the web. Just pure sound and SMS. How it was 15 years ago. Or maybe less!