[lelanthran]

> With your phone, if all you care about is texting and making calls, yeah, you're not getting any added value paying more.

If all you care about is texting, making calls, playing the occasional game[1], browsing the web, doing mobile banking, listening to music, watching videos, using social media, responding to work emails, viewing the occasional PDF, word processed document or spreadsheet sent over email, screencasting to a TV, using the device as a mobile hotspot, testing software you write for phones ... and a few more less frequent things (Like using employers paging app, employers internal systems) ... then you don't get any additional value spending more than $400 on a phone.

Don't ask me what you can do with a phone that costs more, because I haven't yet seen anyone do something on their phone that my <$400 phone cannot do.

[1] Wordle, for example, is insanely popular right now.

[Tenoke]

I read on my phone that has 525 dpi and it seems to make a difference (I only found myself comfortable reading all books on my phone on my previous one which had similar dpi without noticing). Your $400 phone likely has half the dpi, worse screen in general and worse camera for a start. Just because you don't benefit from a better phone it doesn't mean nobody does.

And if you are bringing up games, wordle is an odd choice given that it's among the lightest popular games. My counter example is diablo immortal which just came out and I played some to check it out. I'm not convinced it would run well on your phone.

[lelanthran]

I've played Diablo Immortal on my phone. As far as I can tell, it worked fine.

I used Wordle as an example of a game played by the masses. There are orders of magnitude more people who play things like Wordle than things like Diablo Immortal, hence my reason for using it as an example.

But still, gaming was poorly specified on my part; I should've mentioned that a $400 phone can play AAA titles, not that a $400 phone can play casual games.

Regarding the 525 dpi, you're correct, no $400 phone will have that. People who have trouble viewing a 300 dpi screen will have to pony up for a more expensive phone.

Where we've apparently landed is that $400 will let you play even AAA titles, but will not buy you 525 dpi.

[birdman3131]

I usually buy a generation older phone. Currently on a oneplus 8 pro I bought for $300 that has essentially that DPI (513) and 120hz screen. I would never want to go back to a lower quality screen.

[aidenn0]

Yes, if you want crazy hight DPI and a SOTA camera you pay more than $400.

I don't play AAA games and I need a camera good enough that I can read text I've taken a picture of with. I haven't spent over $200 on a phone in about 10 years (I think it was the NA version of the HTC One X).

[imtringued]

I bought a $400 phone and it is pretty much one of the fastest android phones. I never need its performance.

[sokoloff]

My main phone is an Xs Max that I bought around 15 months old. I just replaced the screen on it because I finally got unlucky on a drop that broke it. (I replaced the battery as well while I had it apart.)

The only real reason I’d consider upgrading is for the better camera on the newer phones. I think I paid $400-450 for that phone 2.5 years ago and just spent $125 on a screen and battery for a phone that will likely be great for another 1.5 years. Under $600 for 4 years seems pretty good.

While I was waiting on the screen to arrive, I bought a 2020 iPhone SE for $150. It’s perfectly usable and in some situations, I prefer the smaller form factor. (I hate the loss of FaceID.)

My wife’s 13 is better for sure, but only really noticeably in the camera.

[brailsafe]

Agreed. I'm using a pixel 4a that I bought in 2020 probably, after someone stole the Oneplus 3 that I bought used on Craigslist. The screen is cracker down the middle, but otherwise I literally haven't thought about what I'd pay more for. In fact, by paying more for an ostensibly better phone within the same lineup, it would be bigger and more annoying to use, have no headphone jack, have potentially worse battery life, and cost me a couple hundred more. I knew when I purchased it that there was a high likelihood of the screen getting cracked within the first 2 years, or stolen, and therefore my risk is lower by buying the cheapest viable current variant.

[godelski]

Did you skip the second half of my second paragraph? I discuss this and it seems you agree with me. Several users have responded this way now so I'm a bit confused. Should I have put in a break to clarify? Was it just too long to people skip?

[marcosdumay]

Two things that change between phones that are still relevant are screen and camera quality. There is loosely a correlation between those and the total phone price.

[ptkd]

iMessage is a legitimate significant value add to my life. Such a high percentage of my associates have iPhones that having an android is a legitimate harm for interactions (makes you less likely to be added to group chats)

I’m speaking as someone who has used both full time as well

[lelanthran]

Sure, but that's a network cost, not a phone cost, same as maintaining a membership to a golf club.

For many people the cost of remaining in an iPhone-exclusive network may be worth the extra money, for others they don't have any opportunity cost to leaving the iPhone-exclusive network.

Anecdotally, I also thought that my iMessage contacts were worth the extra money, until I found out all the people in the network used whatsapp far more frequently.

Turned out, the important conversations weren't happening on iMessage anyway, which was a surprise to me at the time.

[nicoburns]

You can get an iMessage capable phone for $429 (the iPhone SE). And for much cheaper than that if you're willing to buy second hand (I'm currently using an iPhone 6S that cost me £100 a couple of years ago will still run the latest version of iOS until September when iOS 16 comes out)

[bosie]

what it gets you is iOS and hence access to the iOS/apple only apps.