Or use the same money to buy two Xiaomi flagship phones and give one away...
do any xiaomi phones have oreo yet? I can't fathom spending $400 on a phone that's already out of date.
Sort of. LineageOS 15.1 (Android 8.1) was officially released yesterday. Mi5, Mi5s and Mi5s plus were among the initial batch of about a dozen supported devices.
Re:Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+
by greenknight on Sunday February 25, 2018 @06:45PM
(#16461929)
Xiaomi Mi A1 does, it is a android one phone and is expected to get Android P at launch.
Re:Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+
by bubblethink on Sunday February 25, 2018 @08:06PM
(#16462262)
>I would be happy to pay about $250 a year to always have a current flagship
I find this rent-like model very strange. It was the same problem with carrier contracts. Now that contracts, at least in their original form, are gone, not much has changed. Due to a variety of reasons, people still end up paying the same or more than before.
I'm not saying I literally want to rent a phone for $250 a year. I still desire all the benefits of owning the phone, like selling it for market value at a time of my choosing, being able to switch carriers without paying off the phone first, etc. I'm saying that $250 doesn't seem like an unreasonable annual spend to have a current generation phone with timely OS/security updates. it definitely sounds better than buying a $400-500 phone whose OS is already out of date at launch every two years and then not bothering to sell it because it has depreciated so much.
the only thing that makes it rent-like is that I would pay a similar price every year.
Re:Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+
by ricardobeat on Sunday February 25, 2018 @11:05PM
(#16463025)
Vodafone (EU) has a plan where you pay ~€10 extra per month to upgrade your phone yearly (trading in the old one, of course).
something to consider: if I had had a 32GB og pixel at the launch of the pixel 2, I could have sold it for ~$400. if that trend continues, I would be happy to pay about $250 a year to always have a current flagship phone with monthly security updates. that's only 20% more expensive than just buying a ~$400 phone (nexus 5x launch price) every two years. of course you could also sell the cheaper phone, but the non-google phones seem to lose their value faster.
the real question is, why spend flagship money on anything other than a pixel?