The main issue here is the majority of the people who buy these phones shouldn't because they are broke. But, they will all be on some kind of $50 monthly plan. Phone plans are crazy. The average plan is $120 a month. That includes phone and service. I like to keep my phone about 3-5 years.
I still have and use my Note 9 512GB and got a N20 Ultra 5G, early January ($899.99 via Google-Fi).If I needed to replace my current Samsung Galaxy Note 9...
I'd probably go for a Samsung Note 20 .
The main issue here is the majority of the people who buy these phones shouldn't because they are broke. But, they will all be on some kind of $50 monthly plan. Phone plans are crazy. The average plan is $120 a month. That includes phone and service. I like to keep my phone about 3-5 years.
Cell carrier advertising is pretty sneaky these days. New iPhone every two years ON US!!!*
*with super ultra $85/month unlimited plan
Meanwhile I have ATT prepaid for $40 and I suspect the vast majority of people would be happy with such a plan. I just buy a new damn phone outright when it feels like a worthwhile upgrade rather than get tricked into the fake “deals”. I don’t have a laptop and only rarely use my desktop for things I can’t do on a smartphone .. so it’s my main non-work computer really and I don’t mind paying for a good one. Actually preordered a 13 pro max this morning to replace my XR.
I have a buddy who also preordered one, but he has like $75k in credit card debt he’s trying to escape from so he can buy a house, so maybe not the smartest decision there. What’s another $1200 at that point 😵💫 He makes mid-$100k ATOT baller money but has been selling literally all his stuff to pay down CCs. Don’t have to be poor to be broke.
Must be nice to live in such a cheap area. My rent hasn't been under $800 mo since I moved out of a run down 3 bedroom in Queens that I was sharing with 2 others in grad school.Scary thing is...that's nearly 2 months of rent for me.
(My studio apartment's monthly rent is $817/month.)
I agree - phone plans are insane and hide real costs. Plenty of people getting suckered into installment payments across the board.Cell carrier advertising is pretty sneaky these days. New iPhone every two years ON US!!!*
*with super ultra $85/month unlimited plan
Meanwhile I have ATT prepaid for $40 and I suspect the vast majority of people would be happy with such a plan. I just buy a new damn phone outright when it feels like a worthwhile upgrade rather than get tricked into the fake “deals”. I don’t have a laptop and only rarely use my desktop for things I can’t do on a smartphone .. so it’s my main non-work computer really and I don’t mind paying for a good one. Actually preordered a 13 pro max this morning to replace my XR.
I have a buddy who also preordered one, but he has like $75k in credit card debt he’s trying to escape from so he can buy a house, so maybe not the smartest decision there. What’s another $1200 at that point 😵💫 He makes mid-$100k ATOT baller money but has been selling literally all his stuff to pay down CCs. Don’t have to be poor to be broke.
I finally jumped off that boat about a year ago and have been using the same phone for about 30 months now. I think I've drawn my line in the sand to get a new phone at either
1) phone breaks and cannot reasonably be repaired
2) phones finally come out with under display cameras
Fortunately I don't think under display cameras are coming out next year. Maybe 2023 phone launches. And since I work from home my risk of damaging my phone is practically nil.
I expect to get 4-5 years out of this reasonably. Might need a battery replacement eventually.
It's an insidious mindset one can be in. I was once in a similar situation (albeit significantly less debt) where I would buy something because "what's another $1000 on the pile of debt I feel like I'll never pay off?"
Strange how once I finally did eliminate all my debt suddenly I found myself wanting to save even more money. I shrunk my phone bill as much as possible, killed my phone lease/upgrade plan to keep this phone for years longer than I had previously, etc.
Must be nice to live in such a cheap area. My rent hasn't been under $800 mo since I moved out of a run down 3 bedroom in Queens that I was sharing with 2 others in grad school.
I agree - phone plans are insane and hide real costs. Plenty of people getting suckered into installment payments across the board.
I just use Fi - generally runs me $30/mo since I barely use non-WiFi data; and it has been super useful when I had some occasional international travel for work in the pre-covid times. And then when I feel like it, I just upgrade my phone by outright purchasing it.
Plus, the big benefit of full ownership is that you can take your phone elsewhere if the provider starts to suck.
I take it there's a payment plan, how many months to pay it off? That's probably how they price it - not on what the phone is worth - but on what people can afford to pay monthly.
Which makes it worse as it still means you're paying that amount, but people are dumb and think it's not as bad if they can just finance it. I wonder if this is actually what makes cars so expensive because the majority of people don't seem to care about the sticker price, and only how much it is per month.
So would I, but your right, that phone doesn't exist.I'd pay $1.6k for the right phone, but apple isn't it. I don't think "it" exists, but it could.
Tabarnak lol. And that's probably American, so more like $2,400. $2,712 after taxes. I can't imagine blowing that kind of money on a phone.
As a side note this is kind of fun to watch after all these years:
It's funny to look back at his reaction though considering the direction everything went and MS could not really keep up. I pretty much had the same reaction "$500 for a phone?!". And now $500 is a bargain lol.