Show HN: I made a tool to find the best time to buy your new phone

[nalitabuilds]

A few months ago my Pixel 4A phone was dying so I started thinking about upgrading to a newer model. I didn't want to get hit with buyer's remorse if a price drop happened after buying, due to a new model being announced or released. After digging around, it turns out that understanding the lifecycle of even the most popular phones isn’t that easy.

That's why I've made this simple site: keeps tabs on phones lifecycles and gives you a heads-up on upcoming sales seasons to nail your purchase timing. At the moment it only covers the big Android players—Samsung and Google, but I'm keen to expand if it proves useful.

Any feedback much appreciated!

[eulgro]

I suggest you get rid of all the emojis, they don't add anything but do ruin any professional look you might want to aim for.

Also it appears you kept the kilometer long Amazon links, you can shorten them to keep only the dp/<id> part.

[nalitabuilds]

Re emojis: I wanted to give it a 'fun' touch due to the very simple design, but maybe I overdid. Will think about it.

Good catch re Amazon links, will fix.

Thanks for the feedback!

[aio2]

idk why everybody is against emojis, they're honestly fine for me.

but you do you, I guess

[nalitabuilds]

nice to hear! I see them as a quick hack to make things a tad nicer without much hassle.

[hn_throwaway_99]

To be a little blunt, I didn't find this site useful beyond pretty basic intuition. I mean all of the "cycle advice" just boils down to "was a new model just released?" I think anyone doing a teeny modicum of research on their new phone purchase would know that.

[nalitabuilds]

Thanks for the feedback. The intention is to quickly show 'how long normally the cycle is' and 'how deep we are in it'. Agreed some research time could take you quickly to the same conclusion but every user is different.

Is there anything that I could add to make it more useful for you? This is exactly the sort of feedback I'm after!

[hn_throwaway_99]

The thing I think is most interesting from a "new phone cycle" perspective is "What is my expected cost over time depending on how often I replace my phone?"

That is, if I buy a new model every year, that would cost the most, but I'd also get a much higher price for selling my previous year model in good condition. If I replace my phone only, say, once every 4 years, my total outlay is a lot less but I'm also going to get hardly anything for my 4 year old model. So I think it would be really nice to see the total cost with resales taken into account, then people could decide on on how much they really value the latest model.

[nalitabuilds]

I see! Thanks a lot, this is great food for thought. I'm currently focusing on MVP to see if this is somewhere useful but this sounds like the sort of thing that could follow up.

[blini2077]

Interesting tools, unfortunately I'll only be looking at these when I want to change my phone and when I do I'll be in a bit of a hurry and unlikely to wait for an optimal time!

[mutant]

Interesting omission of iPhone.

[d1ss0nanz]

For Apple we have https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

[nalitabuilds]

Thanks for the comment! As an Android user I'm less familiar with the behaviour of iOS users. Is this something you think an iPhone user would find useful or check before buying? Happy to add if it were the case.

[jcrash]

As an iPhone user I would find it super useful!

[lrvick]

Most iOS users just buy every new device the day it comes out. Easy.

[rahimnathwani]

I'm guessing most iOS users got their device used (either inherited it from family, or bought it used).

[NoPicklez]

That couldn't be further from the truth in my experience

[dangus]

Not really true at all but okay.

[marky1991]

None of the Amazon links work for me. (Mobile, Firefox)

[nalitabuilds]

Thanks for letting me know, will look into it

[HackRover]

This is a very focused project. In fact, you could consider presenting the most critical information in the most straightforward way.

[nalitabuilds]

Mind elaborating a tad more? very interested in understanding further, i.e where it's falling short at the moment. Thanks for the feedback!