T-Mobile Might Be Switching To 36-Month Installments

Stembolt

codezer0

Eugh, no. Absolutely not.

Bad enough that a typical phone won’t last a singular year, without degrading to the point of frustration.

px_eliezer_

Bad idea.

Why take the same route as Verizon and AT&T….

All the companies would be the same….

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

—Conclusion of “Animal Farm” by George Orwell.

Andyross

I buy unlocked phones. I’m no slave to the phone companies…

Splitpair

codezer0 Bad enough that a typical phone won’t last a singular year, without degrading to the point of frustration.

Our current phones Kyocera Dura-Force Pro’s are almost 4 years old and working just fine and are extremely durable too.

Splitpair

Andyross I buy unlocked phones. I’m no slave to the phone companies…

That’s the only way to go, you own the phone it is paid for and you can change carriers at will.

codezer0

Splitpair congratulations, I guess? My experience with sealed battery phones does not at all mirror your experience.

I initially wanted to hold off on getting a Nintendo switch for the same reason; I fully expected the battery to become a problem. Thankfully it isn’t nearly as sealed as their marketing first claimed. Shame the Switch 2 is worse off.

I’ve never been satisfied with a sealed battery phone; not even once.

Splitpair

codezer0 I’ve never been satisfied with a sealed battery phone; not even once.

The Kyocera batteries are replaceable but I have not found any generic batteries that will do the job, so if the battery needs to be replaced a new one must be ordered from Kyocera, luckily even with the batteries being almost 4 years old they are still holding up fine.

However the primary thing I like about the Dura-Force is the screen is very rugged compared to most cell phones and they are waterproof up to 6.5′.

Donut417

codezer0 I had my iPhone XR 5 years before I started having issues. Not sure what phones you’re buying. If you buy cheap you get cheap.

codezer0

Donut417 I can’t say I’ve had anything resembling a positive experience with the iPhone(s) either, being perfectly blunt. Even when I did receive a friend’s phone fresh off a battery recall replacement, it’s battery life was still a turd even in airplane mode being a glorified iPod (carrier being extra stupid; neither here nor there).

I’ve had mobile phones long enough to know that those that were sealed batteries never were a positive experience. The only instance where I was willing to tolerate it, was when the phone itself was all of 50 dollars new, and I was only expecting to use it for another month before I was able to start another contract again.

Ever since going with unlocked phones, it should have solved my problems regarding carriers being jerks about the signal. But now the assertion is that at&t and Verizon now enforce a whitelist so that only the phones they sell are allowed to work. The amount of threads on places like XDA griping about their second sourced phones failing to work is too numerous to make me even want to entertain that fiasco.

MacLeech

codezer0 it’s battery life was still a turd even in airplane mode being a glorified iPod

How long do you expect phone batteries to last?

Splitpair

MacLeech How long do you expect phone batteries to last?

Personally I would expect a minimum of 4 years if the battery is replaceable, much longer if not replaceable.

MacLeech

Splitpair Personally I would expect a minimum of 4 years.

Sorry, I meant runtime between charges, which seems to be the issue codezer0 has.

codezer0

MacLeech Are you talking per charge, or the useful lifetime of it?

If I have to carry a charger on my person to be able to top it up during the workday, it’s evidently insufficient for the charge. Likewise, I’ve not had a single sealed battery phone where it could hold a useful charge after just one calendar year. Of course the manufacturer refuses to warranty it, which often forced me to replace it out of pocket. Needless to say, I got sick and fed up with it.

My one experience with the iPhone only lasted about 90 minutes of gaming, in airplane mode. That was the single worst example up until the moto x pure came along and went from 💯 to flat in 60 minutes of pokemon go. Nevermind how it unironically took 10 HOURS to charge only to last about 2 off battery.

In terms of battery life, the shining example was and still is, the galaxy s 3. With am extended battery upgrade, I was getting something like 4 days per charge cycle then; almost a full week when I deliberately tried to be light on it.

The last phone I could truly say I was happy with was the LG v20. Again, extended battery upgrade got me about a day and a half without compromising my usage of it, which according to GSam was about 10 hours of screen on time.

GSam is presently saying I’m getting a little over 9 hours of screen on with my present hmd skyline; a phone I went for explicitly for its repairability angle. If I were able to root it and flash a more efficient custom ROM, I’d probably be quite pleased with it.

As far as usable life, I don’t think it’s too much to ask, to have it still able to hold a charge at least while (worst case) on contract, plus 1 year if it’s a sealed unit. Because I can more easily replace the battery in this one, I’m willing to be more forgiving.

Sealed batteries have always been, and will always be, a trash tier feature. Nothing about durability, capacity or anything else can countermand that opinion.

I almost wouldn’t have bothered with a Nintendo switch at all, because Nintendo was marketing it as a non removable battery at first. Nintendo can thank ifixit for showing that it can be replaced. The same will apply with the Switch 2 for all they’re concerned.