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by newsclues 5 days ago
Do many people really have a stockpile of working old phones?

From my observations, phones get destroyed, used until the battery swells and breaks them, or handed down to kids or less careful users. No one I know has a bunch of old phones that are still useful but unused.

7 comments

I have Nexus 5, Xiaomi A1, Redmi Note 7, Samsung S7, and a Kindle Fire HDX, all running either LineageOS (Kindle) or PostmarketOS (the rest). PmOS ones run some not very demanding containers (scrapers) on k3s.
I have a drawer full of old phones with broken screens, obsolete chipsets, etc. I usually buy phones rather than get them through a contact plan with trade-ins though.
There are recycling and trade-in programs that could collect compatible phones and pass them on in bulk.
They're not useful as phones, because the battery, screen, radio, etc. are damaged; but they may still have a working CPU inside, which would be sufficient for this project.
I have a large amount, some are occasionally useful when debugging.
I did before the switch to volte.

I recycled them wheb carriers decided to block a bunch of phones.

The article mentions the Pixel Fold. I suspect Google possesses every Pixel Fold ever made.