Why I Never Buy Cutting-Edge Smartphones or PCs

I may be a little more &quot;temporally ludditish&quot; than the author. I have bought the cheapest unlocked cellphone that Best Buy, Staples, or Costco had to offer. Most times on Black Friday.<p>I typically paid 150 to 250 Canadian. They last 2 to 3 years and meet my needs right up to the next purchase. I am due this year for a switch.<p>As for PCs and Laptops. All are old BF buys or rescued &quot;garbage&quot;. I am setting up a Dell Latitude E5420 (2013) for a current need. (Official disposed by my employer and intercepted before sent to electronic recycling.) Other resurrected acquisitions that are operational are from 2013 and 2015. I can do this because &quot;what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career&quot;.<p>I like keeping this systems out of the garbage for a few more years.

I&#x27;m not interested in cutting-edge smartphones anymore. Not sure what&#x27;s the advantage because my use cases are pretty minimalists:<p>Whatsapp, email, social medias, online shopping, mobile banking, and a little bit of photo editing.<p>On the other side, cutting edge PC is a way more attractive thing cause it allows you to play 3D-intensive games on max setting, for example.

I have a thing for old worn stuff. Like to reuse my old trainers for walking some extra distance and such. With Linux, computers don&#x27;t slow down with every update. I use an old Nettop as a Debian server. Unlike Raspberry it comes with an UPS of sorts.

Laptops lose their value too fast<p>Now a self built PC can last a long time if you build it in mind with future upgrades, mostly RAM

In Apple ecosystem. The iPhone Pro keep more of its value then iPhone. ( depending on region ) So in reality you actually spend less then $200 if you sell it within 2-3 years, for 120Hz screen, better camera, usable zoom, and better battery life. Which isn&#x27;t really a bad deal to be honest.<p>iPhone 16 would have been close to perfect if it had say 3X zoom and 120hz screen. The weight and thickness of Pro also make it slightly harder to hold.