So I don't know if I can re-read all the posts since I last checked here, but I don't presume anyone is buying anything at the moment. Kinda bittersweet how little progress we've been getting in consumer hardware in the recent years, with an upside that a phone/laptop/PC bought in the last 5-7 years, is likely still perfectly fine today.
TMO offered me an $800 credit to trade in a phone in any condition, cracked screen, etc. It was only if it was towards a Pixel 10 device. I thought about it, since I have my old S7 I never traded in ten years ago. I ultimately didn't take advantage of it because it would've burned an upgrade on my current line/phone with the S22U.
The S22 works fine but I have noticed a big hit to battery in the last few months. It lasts a day but I am in the teens by late night, which is a bit unusual. I may just pay $100 or so and get a battery replacement as it is still on its original battery. So four years.
No itch to upgrade but if the deal is right with the trade in value, I'll do it. But despite using my phone for emails and streaming YouTube audio and using Gemini for at least a dozen queries a day, I can't say a new phone would do any of this any better.
My PC is doing fine, handling whatever gaming I throw at it. My M4 Pro MBP is also fantastic for daily use in the office. That battery lasts over two days of use at work and at home. I expect neither of these devices not fitting my needs for at least another five years.
I did upgrade my mesh network at home, though. Best Buy had a solid deal for 2 Eero 7 Pros and my current eero Pros were WiFi 5 devices from 5 years ago. I traded one Pro node in and kept the other two to use maybe in the office or something. Got 15% towards a new router and got two Eero 7 Pros. I think they broadcast a good bit further than the three eero Pros did, so I downsized to two and it looks like it covers the house well. I get 700 Mbps wirelessly to my MBP on a 1.2 Gbps internet plan, so that's good enough for me. Hoping for another 5 years with this setup. While I have no devices that supports WiFi 7 yet, the older eeros I had were WiFi 5, so it was worth upgrading that for that reason.
Some say the recent parts shortage is a coincidental benefit to companies who don't want people to own software and instead just get hardware as a means to access movies, games, software, etc., via streaming it. So it benefits them to invest in AI and cloud based stuff and have the consumer just rent the software and services since they'd be priced out of hardware.
Makes sense. GPU pricing never came back down after COVID, I don't imagine storage and RAM comes down to "normal" prices either. Just price everyone out.
