Phones are a status symbol?

You and I have different entry levels apparently. My wireless earbuds were around $15 (maybe $40 regularly, my wife found a good deal).

And make sure to use Turtle Wax on it so that the urine splashback will just bead up and roll right off.

2 Likes

If you’re doing it right, there ain’t no splashback

'cuz

tha bushes don’t splash.

i spent probably 1k on this phone back in 2018, but now it’s outdated and the screen is a cracked disaster. nobody is impressed by it now. it’s a samsung galaxy s8.

probably with this status symbol is that it only remains one for a year at most, if you buy it the minute the model comes out, and manage to not crack the screen.

i’ll probably replace the phone next year. so, any recommendations for one that isn’t over 1k? my default would be whatever the newest upgrade is to the now galaxy S20, but i feel like spending that much money on a phone is kinda stupid.

i do like my phone though. i like the size of it. it’s on the larger size, but just small enough that it fits well in my tiny hands. i read that the S20 is even larger, so that might not work for me. plus, not sure I should be spending over 1K for a phone that i just want some pretty basic stuff with.

Okay pleb

Brand-new phones immediately bend my opinion of somebody in the negative direction. However, if your current phone was on the way out and you got a deal, good for you. Most people I know with the iPhone 12 (or whatever’s current) are on payment plans though.

I really like my pixel3a, it’s way fancier than the moto (something) I had before it, but it cost me around $400? I also really like that google pushes out updates/bug fixes to the phone on a regular (monthly) basis, and will continue doing so for at least 3 years after they first started selling the phone, so my phone will not be obsolete (due to system) through May 2022 at a minimum. Whatever new cheap phone from google is available at that time will probably be my next purchase.

I was tempted to grab the S10 new unlocked at Best Buy a few days ago when they had it for $450. I have the S8 as well - but you may have bought it in 2017 when it came out? My battery life is dwindling, but might make it to 4 years, which for a single device is pretty good. Next will definitely be another Samsung.

I just replaced my Moto X with a Pixel 5. The Moto was a mid-line phone a couple of years ago, and it’s been pretty good, but the battery life was going and it had accrued enough cruft to impact its performance, and I broke the stupid glass back the first day I had it. (Honest, plastic is better than glass if you don’t need to look through it.) And the camera was always mediocre, a big step down from my prior phone. (The screen was also a step down, but that didn’t bother me.) Oh – the the microphone was always terrible, so I couldn’t really use it to make phone calls. For personal reasons, that’s become more important to me this year than it ever was before, despite mostly being at home.

I decided to go with a shiney new phone this time, instead of a modest older or midline phone. Apparently the specs aren’t really “flagship”, but all the specs I care about are – it has a giant battery, a nice screen, a good camera, a decent mike, environmental sealing (I can wash it) and wireless charging. So far, I’m pretty happy with it. But you can do better price-wise, especially if you don’t mind if the phone is huge and if you don’t want to use google Fi, which were both issues for me, but aren’t for most people.

lol at a phone that you can’t really use to make phone calls.

I’ve never had a smartphone.

:preen:

What’s the question?

Fancy cars usually have key fobs. Unfancy cars usually do not. I’m doing a A -> B, B -> C, A -> C thing here.

That’s a better set of reasons to upgrade to a specific phone than what most people use, which is ‘Apple’s selling a new phone, I should buy one’.

I wasn’t aware there was more than one type of key for a car. Had to look it up. Don’t need a car in my city so cars aren’t really a status symbol here either.

Payment plan, like rent-a-center?

You kids and yer fancy dancy fobs!!! I’m old enough to remember when you had separate keys for the door and the ignition!!! :older_man: :heynow:

4 Likes

My key isn’t a key, it’s just a fob. My kids cars are fobs that they don’t even have to physically connect to the car. In their pocket is good enough to start the car.

I watched a show where people would throw those fobs on a table by the door. At night someone would go near the door outside, and scan the fobs identity. That let them clone it, and steal the car. Crazy.

Eh, newer cards have fobs irrespective of how fancy or not fancy they are. But of course newer cars are also more expensive, even if they’re non-fancy models.

Yeah, now that the dealer has shown me how to lock the door without the fob, I literally never have to take it out of my purse. It has to be in my purse, but I don’t have to dig through my purse to find it. Which is definitely nice. I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent over the years searching for keys that were buried in the bottom of my purse. So it’s a definite time-saver.

1 Like