Calling you smart phone 'junkies'. Wish there was more choice?

[Aneres11]

Hey everyone.
So after my browsing through the forum and the One Plus 3 thread, someone mentioned about being a smart phone junkie.
I think most of us here can identify.

Anyways, it got me thinking.
Years and years ago when I was at college, I was mad for phones. I had a new / different phone every single week. This was the time before cameras were in phone, and as they were being introduced etc.
I loved getting a different phone, and eBay was my go to place to buy and sell phones. Some, I'd buy and have it delivered, only for it to be back on eBay an hour later!

These days, I don't do it anywhere near as much. If I go 3 months and change my phone, people at work go crazy at me like I have nothing better to do than spend my money on phones.
That's not the reason I don't swap and change as much these days though.

I personally find the choice to be really rather poor. This is my own personal thoughts of course, feel free to disagree!
I used iPhones for a while as I never really enjoyed Android in the earlier days, but now I find it works better in a number of ways than iOS, and swapping between the OS's have never been easier.

I currently use a BlackBerry Priv, and have no intentions of swapping it out for anything. And strangely, I often wish that there was something else to make me want to change it ha. Crazy, right?
But the current crop of phones don't really do anything different to pull me away.

The new HTC is raved about, the S7 is clearly, brilliant, and the One Plus 3 is now easily accessible and extremely well priced. But nothing. No temptation, no devil in my ear whispering to pick up something new.
I am happy with my Priv, but Ive been happy with many phones in the past and still something else has pulled me in.

How is it for you guys? Wish there was more choice? Happy with the current market and feel like there's already too much goodness that you want?!
Take me into your junkie minds and tell me why you like to swap and change and if there was ever anything that would cure it.

Thanks - and sorry for long post!

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

I wish iOS would open up, and WP and BB had a comparable app selection to iOS and Android. This is the reason Android has been my main mobile OS since 2011. I never felt there was a lack of choice with hardware.

Before, I used to go back in forth from Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and BB. Now I feel like I'm stuck on Android for the reasons I listed above.

 

[Tsepz]

I wish there was more choice.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving my Galaxy Note 4 and will be getting the Note6/7...whatever they end up naming it, BUT I'd like to see more variations of phones


I'd love to see more vertical sliders like the BB Priv and Palm Pre, more landscape sliders like what the HTC TyTN and Nokia N97 were, more QWERTY flips like the Nokia E90, more wide QWERTY keyboard slabs like the BB Passport , more phones that come with a WACOM Digitizer + Stylus like the Galaxy Note series and more 5.7-5.9inch Display phones.

I think many are getting bored of the same ol' rectangular, all touch slabs we have these days.

 

[gotluck]

I'm okay with iphone hardware

I want to be able to sideload apps on ios without hoop jumping with developer accounts. Don't want or need gatekeeping / censorship. We should also be allowed to downgrade iOS

I want unlocked android phones compatible with all the advanced carrier features like wifi calling, volte, and carrier aggregation. Carrier branded handsets dont exist to me, so choice is quite small

 

[tbayrgs]

I'm okay with iphone hardware

I want to be able to sideload apps on ios without hoop jumping with developer accounts. Don't want or need gatekeeping / censorship. We should also be allowed to downgrade iOS

I want unlocked android phones compatible with all the advanced carrier features like wifi calling, volte, and carrier aggregation. Carrier branded handsets dont exist to me, so choice is quite small

My sentiments exactly.

 

[mi7chy]

I feel phones peaked out in 2012 with the Galaxy Note II. Newer devices are more refined in existing areas but nothing significant. Tesla Model 3 is more exciting to me these days.

 

[spinedoc77]

Everything is boring. I feel like I could live with my Note 5 for the next 10 years and will only upgrade to the Note 7 because I like to waste money. My hope lies with foldable screens, that gets me VERY excited for the future.

Although I must say the Moto Z gets me slightly excited. Cool stuff like adding a projector to your phone is interesting, maybe too expensive though.

 

[Fernandez21]

I wouldn't say the choices are bad, there are many good phones out. It's just that they all seem to excel in the same areas and have similar faults, so if you move from say an iPhone, to a galaxy, to lg, to HTC, to Sony, they're mostly the same with only a few nitpicking features separating them.

I do miss the days where every phone upgrade seemed significant and there were more os choices (why webos? Why did you have to go to hp and get slaughtered?)

And I too get those looks when ever I get a new phone, which used to be every couple of months, but now is a little longer.

 

[Savor]

I don't consider myself a junkie since I only owned about 25 phones in 16+ years. I know posters here who change their phones like a half dozen times a year. But I do consider myself hardcore with checking phone sites since 2004 and semi-hardcore Android user. I do consider myself a gadget tightwad and value shopper. Hehe!

It is weird because I really can afford a number of Apple products since most of my family uses them, so I don't really fit the label of being too poor who can't afford iPhones. I just got bored with iOS less than five years and I just look for value these days. It isn't because Android users are poor but some of us like to spend our money wisely.

I wouldn't say phones don't interest me as much as they used to. I currently own five phones on rotation. But the flagships don't interest me as much because the specs and their higher price go beyond what I actually NEED from a phone and my main uses for them. The lines between low to mid to high-end are quite gray areas to me these days.

So what's the point of paying $600-$700? With the way I tinker with my phones and how I use them (mainly for texting and browsing), I probably would never need to pay over $150-$200 for any smartphone in the future. I try to have different phones for different situations and not have the same ones as everyone else's.

For now, I will rotate five phones which can balloon to maybe seven since there is a couple of phones I still want to try out. Then will cut it down to two or three as I get older. I wouldn't say because of lack of choices. We have triple number of brands where I live. Hardware and software born from the iPhone era (2007-Present) just matured enough which made the industry stagnant and beyond most people's needs.

There is alot of good phones now. More good than bad. Even sub-$200 phones that would destroy the previous flagships we used from 3-5 years ago. So lack of choice isn't my answer. A matured and saturated industry going far beyond most of people's minimum needs is.