What makes some cell phones worth ten times others?

shastagary wrote:
for some people having the latest expensive smartphone is what they buy to make them look smarter than there friends and everyone around them that does not have the latest and greatest technology. you know what they say if you want to make yourself look smarter surround yourself with idiots.

:h


Isn't that the truth. :S LOL :B

TomG2 wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
You're not completely correct. The phones today still work just like the phones from 15 years ago: you talk into it and listen to it, you then can communicate with the person on the other end. .

Fifteen years ago, we were working with Windows 98 SE, and you do not appreciate the improvement in electronics since then? It has been said that if cars made the progress that computers have, they would get tremendous fuel mileage and cost very little. I remember paying $100 for one Megabyte of RAM. Not a Gigabyte, a Megabyte. Any reason to brag on Honda generators should come as no surprise but comparing them to the difference between a flip phone and a modern Smartphone is quite a stretch. Voice recognition, face recognition, Internet access among other things were pretty rare at the turn of the Century.

I appreciate the improvements in electronics, but lets face it, most people use their phones for Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and taking pictures. Not exactly putting all those improvements to good use. Kind of like buying a top-of-the-line Ferrari and using it to get groceries. Useful, but mostly unnecessary.

fj12ryder wrote:
You're not completely correct. The phones today still work just like the phones from 15 years ago: you talk into it and listen to it, you then can communicate with the person on the other end. .

Fifteen years ago, we were working with Windows 98 SE, and you do not appreciate the improvement in electronics since then? It has been said that if cars made the progress that computers have, they would get tremendous fuel mileage and cost very little. I remember paying $100 for one Megabyte of RAM. Not a Gigabyte, a Megabyte. Any reason to brag on Honda generators should come as no surprise but comparing them to the difference between a flip phone and a modern Smartphone is quite a stretch. Voice recognition, face recognition, Internet access among other things were pretty rare at the turn of the Century.

for some people having the latest expensive smartphone is what they buy to make them look smarter than there friends and everyone around them that does not have the latest and greatest technology. you know what they say if you want to make yourself look smarter surround yourself with idiots.

TomG2 wrote:

Ductape wrote:
Guess I made a mistake wasting money on those expensive red generators too. Or at least that's what some believe.

They're 15 years old now and still running well.

Some of us appreciate quality and don't mind paying for it. It's always a hoot when people on an RV forum start playing the thrift card. Nothing about this lifestyle makes a good financial computation.

If generators had made the progress that electronics have, those generators would silently be putting out 4,000 watts and cost $40 today. Apples and Oranges. Even if you paid $500 for a phone fifteen years ago, it would be worth two dollars today. Maybe. Nothing in common with generators, no matter what color.

You're not completely correct. The phones today still work just like the phones from 15 years ago: you talk into it and listen to it, you then can communicate with the person on the other end.

Something similar would be that you could now take hi-res photos with your generator, and play games with it. You could wirelessly remote start it, but so could other people. And it would be possible for people to remotely steal the gas from it. Otherwise it would generate the same electricity as it did 15 years ago, just with more bells and whistles. And it would use a lot more gas to do the same job, and you would have to fill it up frequently.

I use Net10 for my cell phone service. I used to use Verizon. I carried my Father in Laws phone on our account also. we had gotten new cell phones (nothing special just before he passed away) We wanted to cancel the service to his telephone. They would not let us do that. So for 13 months to the end of the contract we paid for service, for his telephone. When Our contract was up we switched to Net10 part of Tracfone Wireless. and we will not look back. I have bought several new cell phones and they are always new phones. We can get refurbished but we choose the new ones. We usually or I should say the last two we bought were set to work on the Verizon Cell phone towers.

I will guess that the people posting here are more likely to observe The Rule Of Diminishing Returns. That is, for any given expenditure, there is a point at which additional expense delivers less value. However, it is all subjective. People here may be more practical than the average consumer, so money saved by not overspending on one thing can be spent elsewhere. The law of diminishing returns had me buy a Subaru instead of a BMW. I saved enough to buy a second car. Here is something that crosses the line into diminished value territory: Full body paint on my new RV. It that really worth more than $6,000? Nope. I did it anyway because it looked better and blocks cosmic rays and telepathic brain scans.

An inexpensive smart-phone and a reasonable wireless plan is all many people need. Others will use features and services available and pay more for those accordingly. Then there are the folks that buy gadgets with capabilities way beyond their needs. Like having a super-multifunction Swiss Army Knife when all you do is open letters and cut string.

You can compare the specs, you know...
Side by side comparison.

The display is usually the most expensive part of the phone. The cheaper phones have cheaper displays.

But you asked a "value" question.
Only the customer can make that choice.

With a family of 5, we've had expensive iPhones and Androids and cheap ones. I'm still on my Samsung Galaxy S5. The expensive phones do seem harder to break - dropping the cheaper ones usually breaks them.

Nothing... Only a person who lives in their phone would care...

TomG2 wrote:
I was not "Playing the thrift card", simply asking what the extra money buys in terms of performance and capability. I know all about "perceived" value, "pride of ownership", etc. Those are valid reasons to spend money. Paying ten times for a device that will perform the same as all the other phones is a waste of money. In my opinion. One person says there are things his expensive phone will do that mine won't. Those things happen to be of no interest or value to me. That is why I asked. I have busted a few electronics in my time and crunching a $90 LG Smartphone is not as painful as killing a $500 unit. Unless, I am missing some feature or function that someone has not mentioned.

You're the only one who can determine if the higher priced brands/models will be worth it for you.

We can't guess as to what functions and features you will find useful.

For me, I don't worry about what my phone (or any device) doesn't do until I find that I need functions my certain device can't do. Then I go find a device that has those functions.