Aren't u Fed up Being Scammed by the Flagship Phones?

[bagusbagus]

Just because someone has enough money to purchase a Flagship phone, doesn't means they need to be Scammed at every corner.

Some Random Cheap £79 Xiaomi Phone gives you 256gb storage these days. You even get SD slot,Headphone jack,Fairly easy to Replace batteries, Charger for free & even free case/protectors. Most of This stuff was as Standard years ago on every phone, the more you paid, the more stuff you actually got..

While now on a £799 Pixel / Iphone / Samsung S series you get 128gb as Base Storage, No charger, No SD Slot ,No Headphone jack, Batteries or anything else on them are made to be Extremely hard to be replaced & You get Bombarded constantly with some Cloud Storage offers & Other Subscriptions.

I want a good phone with nice cameras & I don't mind paying more upfront for one, but this Scam has gotten out of control

Edited by bagusbagus on Friday 13th September 12:59

[RacerMike]

It's not a scam though is it? It's just consumerism. People have different expectations and desires for a phone and purely practical specs aren't what does it for some people, in the same way that those of us here buy an expensive to run German hot hatch rather than a practical cheap to run Korean car that's more efficient, cheaper and has more features.

Nobody should really be drawn in to feeling like they HAVE to buy the latest iPhone or Samsung Galaxy. I'm sure some people do and those people are the same people who will queue up for Prime drinks and MoonSwatches regardless of whether they either want or can afford them, however that's a whole other rabbit hole and is more to do with mental health or wider advertising/marketing/consumer responsibility than anything we're discussing here.

Personally I like nice things, and I can very fortunately afford them. I like photography and like having the new features that are drip fed to me by Apple (I don't for one minute have the naivety to think this isn't on purpose) so I tend to buy the new iPhone on launch day....the fact that Apple offer me 'free' money to buy it on finance makes it even more appealing as it simply becomes an outgoing that sits with my phone bill. Having said that, I have friends who think I'm crazy and who have exactly the kind of phone you're talking about. The one friend who has had a string of cheap Android phones also has a 15 year old Renaultsport Megane, a Mazda CX5 and a Triumph Thruxton R. He could afford much more but doesn't want to and I absolutely respect him for that, and he mercilessly takes the p*** out of me for buying new cars and new phones. It's arguably the core of our 25 year long friendship!

[bitchstewie]

This ^^

Just buy what you want.

[geeks]

bagusbagus said:

Just because someone has enough money to purchase a Flagship phone, doesn't means they need to be Scammed at every corner.

Some Random Cheap £79 Xiaomi Phone gives you 256gb storage these days. You even get SD slot,Headphone jack,Fairly easy to Replace batteries, Charger for free & even free case/protectors. Most of This stuff was as Standard years ago on every phone, the more you paid, the more stuff you actually got..

While now on a £799 Pixel / Iphone / Samsung S series you get 128gb as Base Storage, No charger, No SD Slot ,No Headphone jack, Batteries or anything else on them are made to be Extremely hard to be replaced & You get Bombarded constantly with some Cloud Storage offers & Other Subscriptions.

I want a good phone with nice cameras & I don't mind paying more upfront for one, but this Scam has gotten out of control

Edited by bagusbagus on Friday 13th September 12:59

Where is the scam exactly?

[Deep Thought]

bagusbagus said:

Just because someone has enough money to purchase a Flagship phone, doesn't means they need to be Scammed at every corner.

Some Random Cheap £79 Xiaomi Phone gives you 256gb storage these days. You even get SD slot,Headphone jack,Fairly easy to Replace batteries, Charger for free & even free case/protectors. Most of This stuff was as Standard years ago on every phone, the more you paid, the more stuff you actually got..

While now on a £799 Pixel / Iphone / Samsung S series you get 128gb as Base Storage, No charger, No SD Slot ,No Headphone jack, Batteries or anything else on them are made to be Extremely hard to be replaced & You get Bombarded constantly with some Cloud Storage offers & Other Subscriptions.

I want a good phone with nice cameras & I don't mind paying more upfront for one, but this Scam has gotten out of control

Edited by bagusbagus on Friday 13th September 12:59

As per the posts above, its consumerism. Cutting edge tech costs more.

I'm a big fan of Samsung phones.

I could pay £75 a month and have the latest Samsung S24 Ultra on my o2 contract.

Instead i pay £6 a month (and that gets me 20Gb of data and EU roaming) and i bought a Like New S20 Ultra on ebay. Its got the big screen, big memory, great camera, but cost me £200. I bought a few new View cases off ebay, genuine OEM for something like a tenner each. For the latest phone they're £40 or so.

[Bluevanman]

The gap between a high end £1,000 phone and a budget £250 phone has never been smaller

[grumbledoak]

It's not a scam, or unique to phones, is it?

Want the "M" version of your car, sir? Suddenly the windscreen wiper blades are twice the price.

Up to you to decide what you are prepared to pay for and if you think it is worth it.

[Mont Blanc]

It isn't a scam is it?

In the interest of education, here is the dictionary definition of a scam: "a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation". A consumer choosing to buy a product of their own free will is not a scam. A scam requires something to be fraudulent or criminal.

As for the phones, I personally buy iPhones because I have looked at all the phones available on the market, and I have decided that I prefer the iPhone over everything else, and it integrates well with my current tech ecosystem at home (Wife has an iPhone, I have a MacBook, iPad, we have another iPad for controlling the heating, lighting, music etc).

I usually buy a new iPhone for about £700, and after two years of use it is worth about £300 when I sell it. That means it costs me £200 a year to own which I think is excellent value considering how much I use it, and what things I use it for.

Edited by Mont Blanc on Friday 13th September 16:09

[SteBrown91]

My iPhone 12 cost £849 in 2020.

Today it is still a perfectly good phone and will be for at least another 12-18 months.

We buy £300 quid Android Samsungs at work and they are slow, cumbersome and sap battery life.

I dont think £850 for 5+ years of use is bad value.

The equivilent iPhone is now £799 so even better.

[MikeM6]

The other question to ask is how is the Chinese phone so cheap? Have they put on the cheapest components and built it to a price point, or are there other revenue streams built in?

Many have advertising it seems, or maybe personal information is harvested and sold on. Actually, I'm sure Google / Facebook etc al do that anyway.

In any event, if it's cheap it's not likely to be good.

[Bluevanman]

MikeM6 said:

The other question to ask is how is the Chinese phone so cheap? Have they put on the cheapest components and built it to a price point, or are there other revenue streams built in?

Many have advertising it seems, or maybe personal information is harvested and sold on. Actually, I'm sure Google / Facebook etc al do that anyway.

In any event, if it's cheap it's not likely to be good.

Aren't most phones made in China ? Even iPhone ?

[LimaDelta]

Bluevanman said:

Aren't most phones made in China ? Even iPhone ?

I like to think there is a difference between made in China, and made by China.

I might be wrong of course.

[bitchstewie]

Absolutely

Amazes me how many people don't trust Apple or Google or Facebook but will happily buy the cheapest imaginable phone of dubious origin and quality and put their life on it.

[Chris Peacock]

I've tried a few cheap phones. On paper they do a very similar job and make great financial sense but in reality they just do everything a bit stter, slower, with a poorer display. Like most people I use my phone for hours a day so I don't mind spending a few quid to get a good quality one. That said, I never buy the latest model, I'll pick up the previous generation and save myself a good chunk of cash.

[Dingu]

How many threads about new phones do you need?

[Chris Peacock]

Dingu said:

How many threads about new phones do you need?

That's a bit off topic Dingu, OP should probably start a new thread to discuss.

[Bluevanman]

Chris Peacock said:

I've tried a few cheap phones. On paper they do a very similar job and make great financial sense but in reality they just do everything a bit stter, slower, with a poorer display. Like most people I use my phone for hours a day so I don't mind spending a few quid to get a good quality one. That said, I never buy the latest model, I'll pick up the previous generation and save myself a good chunk of cash.

You must have bought the wrong phones then, I've had bright FHD Amoled screens on phones that were £200

[Griffith4ever]

bagusbagus said:

Just because someone has enough money to purchase a Flagship phone, doesn't means they need to be Scammed at every corner.

Some Random Cheap £79 Xiaomi Phone gives you 256gb storage these days. You even get SD slot,Headphone jack,Fairly easy to Replace batteries, Charger for free & even free case/protectors. Most of This stuff was as Standard years ago on every phone, the more you paid, the more stuff you actually got..

While now on a £799 Pixel / Iphone / Samsung S series you get 128gb as Base Storage, No charger, No SD Slot ,No Headphone jack, Batteries or anything else on them are made to be Extremely hard to be replaced & You get Bombarded constantly with some Cloud Storage offers & Other Subscriptions.

I want a good phone with nice cameras & I don't mind paying more upfront for one, but this Scam has gotten out of control

Edited by bagusbagus on Friday 13th September 12:59

Scammed is not the right word, but you are on the right track. Most major phone manufacturers are reporting a sharp downward trend in new phone sales - and they all admit the same reason - there just isn't enough innovation to drive the market. This is 100% why they are all pushing "AI" as it's all they've got right now.

Phones are all (I'm ignoring £80 ebay nameless st, stick with Xiamo and the likes) now light, powerful. with great screens, lots of memory and so on. It's been a fair few years since the big names like Samsung and Apple had the monopoly on beautiful OLED screens and fast processors. (Samsung even moved ot the "edge of screen curved thingy" to differentiate themselves - which makes a very hard to hold and use phone btw).

Some of the replies are amusing. "Lumbering and slow Android phones"... that's just bias coming from an Apple disciple. Android has been on an equal footing with Apple for a long time, particularly the top brands like Samsung and, yes, Xiaomi.

Doing man maths to justify paying £900 for a phone because it costs £180 a year is also, well, rediculous. How many people keep a phone for 5 years? Sure, some do, but the vast majority don't. Either through the desire to upgrade, or, equally, through loss or damage (dropping / water). £900, in my mind, is just a potty amount to spend on a phone. But, some people probably thing what I spent on my speakers is potty... so.....

You can get a cracking Xiaomi now for under £200 with a fabulous, large OLED display, fast chip, loads of memory (and RAM), fingerprint reader, the lot. They are fantastic phones. Used, they are under £100 and laughably good. They are in no way slow, and, according to a lot of indudtry reviews (and me personal experience) have some of the best cameras of any phones.

A lot of it now seems ot be driven by fashion / bling. I was in Three shop the other day (I omitted the "A" of "Three" shop so I can be a little like people who wont' say "an" iPhone, but instead, "iPhone" on its own ;-) ) and overheard a young, clearly not wealthy girl with her mum, discussing their upgrade and it went along the lines of, "yeah, and with the phone I'll get the new airpods too, and yeah, that will put it up to £120 a month" - I nearly fell off my chair.

iPhones are also an OS choice, and fair play if you like it. I chat to plenty of older people who say pretty much the same thing, "can't be arse to learn a new phone so I stick with iPhone" (its "my" iPhone, but hey !).

I have come to care less about features these days and mroe about form usablilty. I was fed up with having to always have a case to protect the screen, and I also fancied a smaller phone, like in the olden days, so I bought a used (like new) Moto Razr 40 flip phone and I bloody love it! Small, fits in a shirt pocket. No need for a case - only a small screen on the outside, and back to the very natural way of answering and ending calls by flipping open or shut. £180. Of course I could have spent a grand on a new Galazy flip, but then I'm not stupid.

As an amusing aside, and to illustrate brand loyalty/badge worship, I was at a festival last month and a young bar girl , when seeing me "unflip", pay, and snap it shut again, said, "wow! is that a flip phone?", Yes, I said and showed her, "ahh, what's "moto"? it's not samsung?" and looked rather deflated. :-)

Edited by Griffith4ever on Friday 13th September 18:09

[geeks]

Griffith4ever said:

bagusbagus said:

Just because someone has enough money to purchase a Flagship phone, doesn't means they need to be Scammed at every corner.

Some Random Cheap £79 Xiaomi Phone gives you 256gb storage these days. You even get SD slot,Headphone jack,Fairly easy to Replace batteries, Charger for free & even free case/protectors. Most of This stuff was as Standard years ago on every phone, the more you paid, the more stuff you actually got..

While now on a £799 Pixel / Iphone / Samsung S series you get 128gb as Base Storage, No charger, No SD Slot ,No Headphone jack, Batteries or anything else on them are made to be Extremely hard to be replaced & You get Bombarded constantly with some Cloud Storage offers & Other Subscriptions.

I want a good phone with nice cameras & I don't mind paying more upfront for one, but this Scam has gotten out of control

Edited by bagusbagus on Friday 13th September 12:59

Scammed is not the right word, but you are on the right track. Most major phone manufacturers are reporting a sharp downward trend in new phone sales - and they all admit the same reason - there just isn't enough innovation to drive the market. This is 100% why they are all pushing "AI" as it's all they've got right now.

Phones are all (I'm ignoring £80 ebay nameless st, stick with Xiamo and the likes) now light, powerful. with great screens, lots of memory and so on. It's been a fair few years since the big names like Samsung and Apple had the monopoly on beautiful OLED screens and fast processors. (Samsung even moved ot the "edge of screen curved thingy" to differentiate themselves - which makes a very hard to hold and use phone btw).

Some of the replies are amusing. "Lumbering and slow Android phones"... that's just bias coming from an Apple disciple. Android has been on an equal footing with Apple for a long time, particularly the top brands like Samsung and, yes, Xiaomi.

Doing man maths to justify paying £900 for a phone because it costs £180 a year is also, well, rediculous. How many people keep a phone for 5 years? Sure, some do, but the vast majority don't. Either through the desire to upgrade, or, equally, through loss or damage (dropping / water). £900, in my mind, is just a potty amount to spend on a phone. But, some people probably thing what I spent on my speakers is potty... so.....

You can get a cracking Xiaomi now for under £200 with a fabulous, large OLED display, fast chip, loads of memory (and RAM), fingerprint reader, the lot. They are fantastic phones. Used, they are under £100 and laughably good. They are in no way slow, and, according to a lot of indudtry reviews (and me personal experience) have some of the best cameras of any phones.

A lot of it now seems ot be driven by fashion / bling. I was in Three shop the other day (I omitted the "A" of "Three" shop so I can be a little like people who wont' say "an" iPhone, but instead, "iPhone" on its own ;-) ) and overheard a young, clearly not wealthy girl with her mum, discussing their upgrade and it went along the lines of, "yeah, and with the phone I'll get the new airpods too, and yeah, that will put it up to £120 a month" - I nearly fell off my chair.

iPhones are also an OS choice, and fair play if you like it. I chat to plenty of older people who say pretty much the same thing, "can't be arse to learn a new phone so I stick with iPhone" (its "my" iPhone, but hey !).

I have come to care less about features these days and mroe about form usablilty. I was fed up with having to always have a case to protect the screen, and I also fancied a smaller phone, like in the olden days, so I bought a used (like new) Moto Razr 40 flip phone and I bloody love it! Small, fits in a shirt pocket. No need for a case - only a small screen on the outside, and back to the very natural way of answering and ending calls by flipping open or shut. £180. Of course I could have spent a grand on a new Galazy flip, but then I'm not stupid.

As an amusing aside, and to illustrate brand loyalty/badge worship, I was at a festival last month and a young bar girl , when seeing me "unflip", pay, and snap it shut again, said, "wow! is that a flip phone?", Yes, I said and showed her, "ahh, what's "moto"? it's not samsung?" and looked rather deflated. :-)

Edited by Griffith4ever on Friday 13th September 18:09

People can like and spend their money on different things. You can apply it to anything. Why buy an R8 V10 when a Toyota MR2 does the same thing for a fraction of the price?

[Doofus]

OP has a bee in his bonnet about mobiles, I reckon.

He's got at least three threads going.