From the article:

> My <Android phone> is two years old and, as every Android, becoming slower and slower. The battery has degraded too, and now the phone is not holding even half a day of moderate usage. {author says other words to same effect later}

Although I am an iPhone user myself I hope this is hyperbole. My phones have lasted a lot longer and when I have replaced them it has been for new features (original -> 4 -> 6S Plus). I have had my current phone for a couple of years and don't see a reason to upgrade yet.

I'm not saying this to say "apple good others sux", I'm saying that surely this kind of planned obsolescence can't be the rule.

On another point: part of the benefit of Android is you don't have to run the stock apps, right? So as long as the hardware is decent, you can run the google camera app as the author did and got the best of both worlds.

(BTW I know a bunch of the Essential folks including Andy and the same guy spec'd/designed the camera hardware for Essential and, before that, Google).

I had windows phone for the longest time. At the expense of apps, it had great a battery life, great camera, and was always fast.

I switched to the flagship 2014 Moto X in October 2014. I got the material design update (iirc lollipop) in march 2015 and by then it was slow. The battery life was terrible. The camera was worse than the old windows phone despite the superior resolution.

Having a less than one year old unusable flagship sucksss. I got the iPhone 6s at launch and was blown away by the battery life, and the speed. I'm no Apple fanboy (as my post history proves), but iPhone is hard to beat. I'm thinking of getting an iPhone 8, not because there's anything wrong with my phone now, but because I want a shiny new toy. (and now I'm starting to rethink if its a wise decision...)

I've been burned by android and I just don't feel like I can trust the device to still work in a year. Kind of like the worst of Windows devices in the mid 2000s.

Moto X 2014 user here. I love this phone and sadly I would have to replace it soon because it is half broken.

I don't have crappy apps like Facebook or Snapchat which drains the life of any phone. I think the biggest problem of Android is the background process and how devs use too much this and not for improving the user experience but for revenue. Facebook tracks everything it can in the background to show you better ads, this is not possible in iPhones. Android Oreo might solve a little bit this big problem, so let's see.

I had an issue where my phone would go from full battery to nearly dead after a day of idling unused in my desk drawer. The Android Battery app would just list "Android System, Android OS, etc" without pointing out any culprit app. I eventually figured out that Google Chrome was to blame and disabling Chrome (unable to uninstall it) fixed the problem. What was Chrome doing all day while my phone was sitting idle? I don't know, I never used Chrome as a brower, it's still a mystery to me.

Hangout was another problem app. Hangouts liked to crash, and after crashing it would leave something still going that would drain the battery unless I manually killed the Hangouts process.

These anecdotes are just to say I've found my battery problems are typically some app doing something bad without my knowledge. I'd like more strict control over background processes as well.

I would experience accelerated battery use after system updates were installed. Same deal, as I recall: Something buried within the "Android System" categorization.

For my case, I found that a hard reboot -- turning the phone off and then back on -- brought resource/battery use back in line. That is, an additional reboot, after the one initiated by the update process, itself.

I never did encounter an explanation for this.

After my Nexus 5X -- whose battery life was already starting to shrink more and more -- bootlooped at about 1.3 years old...

Well, I look at my friends with iPhones that "just work" and last until new features compel them to upgrade their device. And it's increasingly tempting... (Just, I don't want to drop a grand on a phone, per the reported upcoming pricing for the iPhone 8.)

Two things I'm hopeful for: project treble which has seen extensive discission on hn and the steady progress in finding the balance that places more restrictions on background apps.

Personally, I'd like for no app to be able to run at boot or run in background or go online without explicit (revocable) user permission. I agree with you. I am not very optimistic about it.

What made you come of Windows Phone now Windows Mobile when it has always been fairly lacking in the app department?

Try getting an old Nexus or Google Picel they have worked okay for me but funny enough I still use my iPhone as my main work phone and barely use the Android Nexus.

From what I hear from my fellow Android users, it's a common story. And yeah, it happens less for iPhone. My thinking is that partially it's a platform fragmentation to be blamed. As long as the phone is new, companies will be running perf tests for it, but it's physically not possible to rigorously test an app for 2+ years worth of Android devices. While in Apple ecosystem 2 years == just 2 devices. I'm an Android user from the inception and I observed this ~2 years trend for every one of my phones. My wife's iPhone 5s (not the strongest device by any means) seems to be still fine though.

I'm still using a galaxy S6 without any complaints. It never had stellar battery life and still doesn't but I haven't found that to be a problem. Samsung gave a free wireless charger when I bought it and I have that on my desk which makes charging very easy.

I love how the new phones look but can't justify replacing a perfectly working phone.

I think replacing a not broken phone, at least to a flagship, is rarely a rational decision. People buying a flagship are buying a new toy and they want this toy to entertain them, give emotional satisfaction and show a little bit of "tomorrow". That's (in my opinion) is what the high price tag for. Essential tried to enter a high price territory from the first shot and just failed to impress. Otherwise, I bought a Nexus 5X for my mom last year and I think that was a pretty rational choice. It's cheap, performant and still supported by google. Absolutely no need to replace until she breaks it.

Even non-flagships are fine. I've had an LG Stylo now for 2 years which I bought used a few months after it came out for $100. Signal, Firefox, Pandora, etc all run fine on it, it doesn't have connectivity problems like any of my friend's Nexus 5x or 6p phones have, and at this point its a sub-$50 phone, so if it breaks, no sweat!

Compared to the Galaxy S4 I had prior to it, this Stylo was definitely a big upgrade. No more SIM not found errors, band 12 support, better battery life, for less than a quarter of what I paid for my Galaxy S4.

> Absolutely no need to replace until she breaks it.

Look up 'Nexus 5X Bootloop'. I had one before it started doing that. It's a common problem with that phone and it's predecessor, Nexus 5.

The throwaway culture that has come about with cellphones is both costly and really damaging to the environment. Poor software support, terrible "recycling" practices by carriers and OEMs, and purposeful defects to limit product lifespans.

Apple actually forces recyclers to shred old devices rather than allowing said hardware to be repaired or pulled apart for parts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F66BapDvpU8

Very nasty process, super wasteful!

They aim to change that with their new project called Liam: https://www.apple.com/environment/pdf/Liam_white_paper_Sept2...

It's a robot that can take apart and iPhone and separate its components for recycling.

Why not let the recyclers handle this? Apple building their own bespoke, unsupported solution isn't apt to end well. The recyclers already handling this hardware are happy to pull this hardware apart and reuse it.

From what I've heard from family who works at Apple, they're the king of duplication, every project has multiple teams doing the exact same thing, and the right hand has no clue what the left hand is doing. Secrecy is the core of their corporate culture, overriding everything else.

In my experience, the Google Play Services play a big role in that.

They get updated independent of the OS, which is in some ways a good thing, but does play a role in things gradually getting slower. My first phone for example became essentially unusable thanks to those, as my internal storage got completely filled up.

And it's Google's main-highway for collecting user data. It obviously takes battery and processing power to tell Google everything about you.

I have no idea where his experience comes from. I've mentioned this on HN before, but my 5 year old Galaxy S3 has only gotten faster since launch and the battery lasts longer; with its current 7000mAh extended battery lasting 10-15 days without needing to recharge, and no that's not a typo.

I swapped the Samsung ROM to CyanogenMod (now LineageOS) shortly after release; inmediately gaining some speed from the process and noticeably improving with each major Android version bump.

That means you are probably using a limited set of lightweight apps. Or maybe competing for the longest lasting S3 award :P Usually, people tend to install more and more apps and those apps themselves are getting more and more resource hungry. That's what's driving the higher and higher hardware requirements and that's how the manufacturers survive. This is not even Android or iPhone specific pattern, this is true for all my laptops as well. Several years ago a dual-core 4Gb ram laptop felt like a hell lot of power and now, with Docker, VirtualBox, tonnes of services running inside of them, and a video call on background, my i7 16Gb macbook feels like a turtle.

Add: Skype, I think is a great example. I used to use it (maybe through immo.im) on Nokia 5233 and it was fine. And today Nexus 6P is getting hiccups.

> That means you are probably using a limited set of lightweight apps

That's a good point. I do have three messengers installed (WhatsApp, Telegram and Riot), but I don't have any apps from the usual social media bloatfest. I do use "Swipe for Facebook" but not the official app nor Messenger.

I'm using a Motorola Defy from 2011. The thing runs Android 4.4.4, gets about 4-5 days / 7 hours of screen time on a single charge. It does not get slower 'as every Android' which is not that surprising given that Android itself is not susceptible to slow-downs like e.g. Windows is. I'm careful not to heap too many background-active apps on the thing to keep it nimble. I don't use live wallpapers, widgets or other such trickery. I also try to keep storage (internal and external) from filling up as those do get slower the closer they are to full.

I bet you don't have mobile internet enabled.

I enable mobile data when needed, i.e. when out of Wifi-reach. I also use the phone as wireless access point on those occasions when the - rather spotty - ADSL connection has given the ghost.

Apple has am easier life ensuring compatibility and performance. Even with that you can see a phone getting slower over multiple iterations of ios.

As far as battery drain: i believe the usage pattern and how much time you invest in configuring your phone go a long way (did it for android, did it for ios. For example: background app refresh? Nope. Gps while not using the app? Nope. Look at battery usage over the day and see what kills your battery)

My android has started to get extremely slow recently, but I realised, somewhat unexpectedly, the culprit was Google'so "GBoard" keyboard app. Switching keyboards brought it back to life.

Other than that, I've had it over 4 years and had no performance issues. The battery lasts 2 days or more.

I think quality control of app performance must be a big factor. And not just 3rd-party ones. Google are really not good at software performance where obsolescence is a concern - things can only be expected to be usable on new setups.

I've never had such issues with any of my Android phones, but it might be because i don't buy flagships and always run custom ROM

I still have a Galaxy Note 3 from either 2013 or 2014. It does OK, though has had a cracked screen that's only getting worse (I drop it pretty often). Battery life is the biggest issue, but it's still just within the OK range. Normal use and it will get down to 20% by the end of the day.

The battery of my four year old Nexus 4 can certainly still manage nearly a day.

They lost me at no 3.5mm headphone jack. How can you say your phone covers the essential and leave out an essential port?

I started using Bluetooth headphones last year without special reason. I am not coming back to 3.5mm headphones, wires are so annoying when you are doing something else and they are in the middle.

So you have people like me and a lot of people that never use that connection. And I guess a lot of people buy the phones based on the feeling when they catch them, and thinner phones feel better and people are more likely to buy them. Thus say bye to the 3.5mm connection and loss the hope for bigger batteries. Buy trends is what matters for business.

I've got bluetooth headphones. I get tired of keeping them charged, so they never are. But I've got like 10 pairs of wired headphones around, and the convenience always wins. Headphone wires have never bothered me.

> Thus say bye to the 3.5mm connection and loss the hope for bigger batteries.

Sounds like a couple of great reasons to stop buying music to listen to on the phone, stop buying game apps, etc. And to stick with my current phone as long as possible.

I felt that pain until I got my AirPods. In part because of the two part charging - they're always charging in the case and then you charge the case semi randomly - about once a week for me.

AirPods seem nice, but the whole "10x cost" thing has me questioning Apple's "courage." I'll consider a phone without a headphone jack when Bluetooth earbud prices aren't insane.

I can't imagine paying that much for a pair of headphones. I think that my most expensive ones were about a quarter of that prices. I don't place much value in getting rid of the wires, and I treat my headphones like cattle instead of pets for the most part.

I'd also lose a lot of the positive aspects of Airpods: I don't have any recent Apple devices that I use regularly, so I wouldn't get to take advantage of many of the auto-pairing features.

I agree Bluetooth is convenient, no doubts. But I think the adoption of wireless should be driving the ditching of wired interfaces, not the vice versa. Otherwise, a lot of people feel being forced to use something, that is just supposed to be better.

It is. Wireless sells more than wired. Has done for over 1.5 years at this point (early 2016)

your headphones are not connected by cable, what model you own?

Preach it friend. I use my headphone jack several hours every single day. To me, it is absolutely essential. I have feared that after Apple did it, all the Android manufacturers would follow them off the cliff D-:

Bluetooth headphones surpassed wired headphones in sales early last year.

It’s fundamentally not essential anymore for many - even possibly most - users of new devices, especially when the other port can duplicate the functionality through the same DAC.

I know it’s a big change but honestly Bluetooth audio has got so much better - the newer more advanced codecs are basically CD quality sounds - and most decent new BT headphones are pretty high quality.

I mostly agree and use bluetooth headphones a lot. They are better for the gym, and better for connecting to my laptop/desktop so I can get up and walk away from it.

That said and though the audio quality is improving, they are still a pain to use between multiple devices, remember to keep charged, often uncomfortable to wear in bed/lying-down (usually have some battery bulk going on).

So I'm still glad my phone has a headphone jack for backup and times I just don't feel like faffing with the far from perfect bluetooth, like right now I just got out of bed, plugged my wired headphones into my phone and started listening to a podcast.

(Also, I understand that some of my issues will be solved when 'AirPod'-level headphones become more affordable).

Define more affordable? Beats are incredibly popular and are expensive as fuck.

The Beats X are solid little guys and sell for normal decent headphone prices. I’ve had no problem switching with those for example.

Ah I'd define affordable for headphones as < £50/$65. I see Beats X are still $150 :/

But I do see the advantage in paying more, then making use of the typically better warranty/guarantees to keep them going for years, rather than accepting breakage as I do now.

I'm still only prepared to pay that much if they really do solve the 'device switching problem' though, otherwise I'd rather stick with multiple pairs of budget bluetooth headphones (1 for gym, 1 for desktop machine) ...

Id put that firmly in the “budget” category myself, based on sales anyhow.

Would be nice for stuff to get down to that price tho.

For the record - I haven’t had any issues switching devices with my Beats X

Yeah. Cool that's good to know, thanks!

I honestly don't get it. My OnePlus One still holds strong to this day, easily get through day on one charge with watching Videos and so on. New Roms keep everything updated and smooth. My Android phone has never been faster. Even the battery is replaceable, once that day comes.