[delazeur]

> Also, iPhones are extremely economical. My iPhone 6, which cost $749 at the time, is coming up to 3 years old.

Uh, what? I'm on my second ~$70 Android smart phone in eight years. It's a tad slow, but we're talking about literally a few seconds of waiting, nothing truly inconvenient. I have honestly never been impressed by anything a $600+ iPhone can do beyond what my phone can. The only drawback is that it isn't compatible with Apple group texts, but that is more than made up for by the fact that I truly don't care if my phone gets lost or breaks (I back up my files, so I'm only out 70 bucks). I have no idea why people spend so much money on phones.

[TeMPOraL]

> It's a tad slow, but weren't talking about literally a few seconds of waiting, nothing truly inconvenient.

A few seconds of waiting is not "truly inconvenient"? I suppose you're either a zen master, or not doing much with the phone (possibly because it's "a tad slow").

For me, the phone is something I use constantly during the day, in lots of brief bursts. Few seconds of lag may be the difference between me staying in or leaving the flow. It would often make a significant fraction of the length of a single interaction with a phone. Those kinds of frustrations add up for me over time. Avoiding all of that is worth the $700, if I can afford it.

[Aeolun]

That can be a choice. If you know every interaction with your phone is going to be an exercise in patience, you'll be less likely to whip it out for every random thought or notification you get.

[KozmoNau7]

"A few seconds of waiting is not "truly inconvenient"? I suppose you're either a zen master, or not doing much with the phone (possibly because it's "a tad slow")."

No, he just isn't possessed by the ridiculous "must go faster, must go faster" mindset that plagues most people today.

A website takes more than a second to load? ARGH it must be down, now my day is ruined!

Just relax, if a small delay is enough to make you "leave the flow", maybe you need to reevaluate your priorities. If your "flow" is interrupted that easily, maybe it wasn't particularly important, anyway.

[delazeur]

If two to three seconds of waiting (that's on the high end, and only for certain apps) is breaking your flow, you need to work on your attention span. That's ADHD territory.

Edit: For that matter, interacting with your phone for a few seconds at a time is probably an attention deficit issue in and of itself. I admit that it's common, but that doesn't mean it isn't a problem.

[jamesrcole]

> It's a tad slow, but we're talking about literally a few seconds of waiting, nothing truly inconvenient.

Few seconds waiting for what? There's a big difference between a few seconds waiting for an app to load and, say, for it to register that you've tapped a key on its on-screen keyboard.

[tagurit]

There's not much to understand why people spend a fortune on phones every few years. These days it's more because of the status of owning the latest and greatest device (nothing wrong with that as people are entitled to do whatever they tf they want to do). Like everything else really.

[dannysu]

I mean my wife is still using my iPhone 3Gs (8 years old), so I get there are different needs. That's exactly my point.

Would you make the argument that everyone should be using $200 chromebooks?

If not, then why would one make the argument that anything more expensive than a chromebook is crossing some kind of threshold?

[ZenoArrow]

> "I get there are different needs."

What are those different needs? What do the top end phones do that the mid range phones do not, other than take better photos? Battery life is comparable, screen size is comparable, they run the same apps. I'm struggling to think of a single reason (other than the camera) why people buy high end phones anymore. There used to be a big difference in quality, but that gap has pretty much evaporated.

[Gaelan]

When was the last time that phone got a security patch?

[quuquuquu]

I don't mean to sound utterly petty, but most security threats these days seem to be external to the device you are using.

Yes it sucks when a windows xp machine catches a massive virus from a random website.

But here I am with an iphone 5 that cost me $xxx, it gets updates that slow the phone down and break a lot of functionality, and my ssn isn't keylogged from my device, it's just leaked by someone else!

Now luckily my passwords aren't being keylogged but- wait! damnit!