Now is the worst time ever to buy an Android phone

http://www.bgr.com/2012/03/22/now-is-the-worst-time-ever-to-buy-an-android-phone/

by kemper • 14 years ago

18 18 14 years ago

bgr.com

Nowyouknow• 14 years ago

The article SHOULD be titled "Now is the worst time to get locked into a two year contract".

Blatant crap IMO.

gcb3• 14 years ago

yeah. that will always be "true" btw.

at every point in time you could say "don't buy gadget X because any time now they will have gadget Z available". and you will be correct. works for cellphones, cars, kitchen knifes. anything.

Dylan16807• 14 years ago

Not really. Major changes don't come by all that often, only every year or three. It's a really bad idea to buy a pre-ICS phone while ICS is coming out, but once you jump that hurdle everything is going to be incremental and minor for several months.

ceejayoz2• 14 years ago

My 10 year old kitchen knife compares favourably to a new one.

onemoreact• 14 years ago

That's not really true. I bought a i7 2600k over a year ago and no better CPU has come out and it's price is virtually unchanged. So while waiting less than 3 months for the next Intel CPU is probably worth it, last year I knew I would have to wait a year or more for something better so there was little point in waiting.

PS: I bought a GTX 680 today I don't expect to see a 200W GPU that's much better for at least a year and a due to the die shrink a significant upgrade is probably 2 years away.

kemper• 14 years ago

Whether or not you or I agree, you've completely missed the point the author makes.

"For tech savvy smartphone users, committing to a two-year contract is brutal. Mobile technology moves so fast that smartphones can seem outdated just months after they launch. While this trend is bound to continue, the degree to which new generations of Android phones outdo their predecessors will always ebb and flow. Handsets have been improving at a somewhat modest pace for the past year or so, but the next crop of smartphones to hit store shelves will represent a huge leap forward rather than a few short steps."

His position is that while next-gen will always surpass current-gen, the upcoming handsets he covers will be a more substantial leap than generations past, and subsequent devices over the next 6-9 months will be playing catch-up rather than continuing to leapfrog.

r00fus• 14 years ago

"and it features a 1.5GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor, a 4.6-inch 1,280 x 720-pixel Super LCD 2 display, an 8-megapixel ...." blah, blah..

What about heat profile, battery life, and cost? Spec-lists may sway some buyers, but most folks want to know how they can use those specifications to make calls and do tasks.

tptacek• 14 years ago

Also: these are all huge screens.

mhd• 14 years ago

I wonder where this is heading. Either that's going to turn up to be an unusable medium between tablets and phones, or we're watching the evolution of the "personal computing device" who just happened to be that smaller because they started out as phones. I bet it won't be long until someone calls out the "post-phone era"…

(I'd bet against it, due to the pretty constant constraint of jeans and jacket pockets.)

caublestone• 14 years ago

Of course phones are gonna get faster, more memory, better screens. Honestly though, I just got a new droid, and yeah it's better than the old one, but not 2 years difference like it used to be.

I don't give a damn about specs. I care what I can do with the phone. I was hoping this article was going to go in the direction of HTC is releasing a beautiful and blazingly fast phone that integrates Dropbox storage (which is true), improved speech controls, and a smart notification system that figures out when you want to get things done.

joejohnson• 14 years ago

Android phones have never been as impressive as they are today. They have never been as responsive, as slim or as powerful. Their displays have never been more vivid or more stunning. Their data speeds have never been as fast.

Yes, that's true right now. It was also true 2 years ago. It will be true next year, too. Every successive generation has to be better than the last.

nextstep• 14 years ago

>> These new smartphones will be slimmer, sleeker and more capable than anything on the market today...

I have a year-and-a-half old iPhone. It has a great camera, a great screen (the first "Retina" screen), and it is plenty fast and the battery lasts about 36 hours with normal use. All of the new features in newer phones are marginal improvements over my current phone; the newest android phones are not leaps and bounds greater than the previous generation. They are ~20% better, maybe?

The point is, this guy is probably just obsessed with having the latest and greatest, even if it's only slightly better than phone he bought 3-6 months earlier. Most people probably aren't that crazy about technology, and don't have the resources to buy a phone more than once every two years.

psyklic• 14 years ago

The author completely didn't discuss the negatives -- the battery. The largest battery life between the phones mentioned is 1800 mAh. This is just over half of the battery capacity of the current-generation Droid Maxx (3300 mAh) - which still has a slim profile and speedy processor.

For me, the 3300 mAh battery life is a definite current-generation game-changer. Not having to charge my phone throughout the day, no matter how much I use it -- and not having to carry around an extended battery -- is what I care about. I'd gladly take that over a higher-res screen.

NameNickHN• 14 years ago

For tech savvy smartphone users, committing to a two-year contract is brutal. Mobile technology moves so fast that smartphones can seem outdated just months after they launch.

There is a simple solution to this. Just choose a plan that doesn't contain a subsidized phone. It's cheaper which means you have money left for the phone you desire. Once that is outdated, just sell it on ebay or wherever and purchase a new phone. And so on. Of course, the new phone will cost more than you get for the old one, but you really can't have everything.

Now is the worst time ever to buy an Android phone

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