Android is in a strange place right now. New phones have never been better, yet it’s harder than ever to justify buying the latest one. You’re better off keeping your current device until it’s no longer up to the job. And when you do need to replace it, buy an older model instead.
New phones have never been less exciting
Manufacturers have run out of hardware innovations
It’s been evident for a long time how much smartphone development has plateaued. The first decade of the smartphone era brought exciting new devices on a yearly basis. In the second decade, they settled into incremental updates. And in the last few years, it has become even more exaggerated.
The differences between one generation and the next are barely noticeable, with even relatively affordable phones being fast enough. There will always be people who want the best of the best, but the average user would have to go very budget to find a phone that wasn’t suitable for their day-to-day needs.
Cameras do continue to improve, but they’re usually refined rather than transformed, and are often driven by software rather than hardware.
We’ve lost the things that once made Android phones distinctive. The funky form factors that manufacturers used to experiment with are long gone, as is expandable storage. And phones with unlockable bootloaders that cater to enthusiasts are rarer than they used to be. Foldable phones are the only new category of product that’s emerged in the last few years, and they come with often eye-wateringly high price points.
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