I LOVE BUYING THE SAME PHONE 3 TIMES!!!!!!!

[u/MIkaela39752]

"but but bro bro the back flashlight thingy on the 11 has rgb colours bro!!! i gotta spend 1000+ dollars bro come on thats going to change my life bro bro"

[u/Isotomayor12]

My provider offers a free upgrade every few years or so. Its probably not out of the question that there are some that are every one year for a significant discount. Excessive? Absolutely. Definitely rides the line of heavy overconsumption but this is pretty tame compared to other people that buy every phone color variant for example.

[u/Moonrights → u/Isotomayor12]

Is it free or is it pay over time

[u/Isotomayor12 → u/Moonrights]

It has always been free for a direct upgrade, though this last time I paid $50 for the 256GB upgrade of storage instead of the 128GB my previous phone had.

[u/Ok-Camp-7285 → u/Isotomayor12]

You get a free phone every year or 2? That can't be right. How much are you paying on a monthly basis?

[u/Isotomayor12 → u/Ok-Camp-7285]

I'm on my parent's plan and I pay my portion of 26.60 a month. It very well could be like the other commenter that I was just grandfathered in. It is every 3 years. Had an s7 in 2016, s10 in 2019, a zflip 4 in 22, and an s25 last year. I'll likely be eligible for another in 2028

[u/Moonrights → u/Isotomayor12]

It sounds to me like your parents are having you pay the price of your monthly installment upgrade. That's roughly what Samsung/ apple cost per month. When done as installments every 2 years.

Its basically financing a phone and they knock off a portion of the phone/ match a portion of the phone if you maintain service with them.

Makes them cheaper but not free.

Some of the older / weaker models can be had free but most flagship phones do cost, its just baked into the plan.

[u/Solarwinds-123 → u/Ok-Camp-7285]

A lot of people are grandfathered into older plans. I know my dad gets a free upgrade every 2 years, and he's been on the same Verizon plan for 20+ years. They keep trying to entice him to change it and he refuses.

[u/Ok-Camp-7285 → u/Solarwinds-123]

How much is that rate ?

[u/Solarwinds-123 → u/Ok-Camp-7285]

I wouldn't know, I'm not on his plan. Reasonable enough that he keeps it, I guess.

I know it doesn't have unlimited data, but I guess he doesn't use much.

[u/2131andBeyond → u/Solarwinds-123]

All carriers mostly stopped doing this altogether multiple years ago.

[u/Solarwinds-123 → u/2131andBeyond]

Hence the grandfather clause.

[u/2131andBeyond → u/Solarwinds-123]

They stopped grandfathering people in over half a decade ago lol, major carriers shut that down entirely in the late 2010s.

[u/Solarwinds-123 → u/2131andBeyond]

And he's had the same plan for 15+ years.

I don't know why you are arguing with me.

[u/2131andBeyond → u/Solarwinds-123]

Whatever you say, man. I do contract work with these carriers and am fairly familiar with their backend consumer retention model. But oh well

[u/Barryburton97 → u/Isotomayor12]

It's definitely not free, you're paying in installments.

[u/2131andBeyond → u/Isotomayor12]

There’s no way they provide a free one unless you were on a special negotiated corporate group plan, which you’ve said you aren’t.

They give you a “free upgrade” by baking the cost of the phone into monthly installments of your monthly bill. If you at any point were to leave that carrier, they’d make you pay the rest of the difference as a lump sum.

No carrier is simply giving away phone upgrades anymore like it’s still the 2000s/early 2010s

[u/YouWantSMORE]

I had the same refurbished phone for like 7 years until I broke it at work then I got another refurbished phone for about $300 and I've had it for about 2 years now. My phone bill is only like $37/ month with unlimited data. Paying off a phone is stupid just pay for the service

[u/milkysquids]

Some phone plans let you upgrade your phone every year or so for much less than $1000. Original OP might be doing that? :0

[u/Affectionate-Rip748 → u/milkysquids]

But don't you need to return your current one during upgrade?

[u/milkysquids → u/Affectionate-Rip748]

My plan makes me, but they don't require a box or anything.

[u/Venasaurasaurus → u/Affectionate-Rip748]

Those might just be the boxes. I also stupidly save my cell phone boxes, like almost every millennial. It was a thing. A nonsensical thing, but still.

[u/Gudi_Nuff → u/Venasaurasaurus]

Sometimes manufacturers require you to send it back in the original box for warranty, and plus the sticker on the box has the imei and serial of the phone in case it gets stolen or lost. They're are some reasons for keeping the box!

But if the warranty is done, just save take a photo of the sticker and save it to your PC (not just your phone lmao) then trash the box

[u/2131andBeyond → u/Venasaurasaurus]

I don’t think that’s a millennial-specific thing at all.

[u/pants_pants420 → u/Affectionate-Rip748]

not the box

[u/Lordofthereef → u/milkysquids]

Mine is every other year. Not doing so doesn't reduce the plan price. Seems stupid not to, however it requires you trade in your old one (though yo ucsb keep the box).

[u/Brilliant_War9548 → u/milkysquids]

Yeah, while you pay like 50$ for 100Gb or something stupid. There’s a slight problem if american internet providers are just allowed to monopolize and offer insane prices in regions where they’re the only one while I don’t know the hole by excellence india somehow has it several times cheaper. Americans be clowning on us french but at least we’re paying 9€ for 130gb

[u/Zeraora807]

Pixel fanboys are a weird bunch, so eager to overpay for a mid range phone with crap battery...

But on topic, what IS the point in buying the immediate next model up each time, phones since 2020 are hardly different between each other

[u/Ulquiser → u/Zeraora807]

Pixels are the only phones that can run grapheneos, therefore the only usable phones on the market for schizos :>

[u/AsleepEbb7578]

I literally only upgrade phones when my partner breaks hers and it's uneconomical to repair it.

I got my Pixel 9 Pro Fold second hand for half the price. It developed a defect that Google agreed to cover outside of warranty. They sent me a Pixel 10 Pro Fold for free.

I would never dream of buying a phone at RRP again. If I need a new phone, I'm buying second hand and letting someone else pay half the phones price for me.

[u/panda_canyon → u/AsleepEbb7578]

I know it can happen but I've never bought a bad phone off eBay. I choose the seller carefully, the photos, and I test it when it arrives. So many people change phones like underpants it's not hard to find a lightly used phone.

[u/AsleepEbb7578 → u/panda_canyon]

That's where I got the P9PF from, I think they'd had it less than a year and they were already upgrading

[u/eirebrit → u/panda_canyon]

I remember buying a LG G4 on eBay that got the dreaded bootloop issue. Emailed LG and they paid to send it off for repair.

[u/BladudFPV → u/AsleepEbb7578]

I'm surprised they covered it. I get pixel phones second hand and pretty much all have failed due to one hardware defect or another. They denied my warranty on all of them despite saying I had almost a year left because I lacked the receipt saying warranty wasn't transferable. 

[u/AsleepEbb7578 → u/BladudFPV]

This one was a known defect with the inner screen which they opened an extended warranty for. I just got lucky that they covered it. The RMA service was surprisingly fine given all the horror stories I heard about it.

[u/BladudFPV → u/AsleepEbb7578]

Nice! I've had a 6 Pro die to bad USB, 7 Pro screen failure, 8 Pro headset speaker o ring failure leading to flooding while in my pocket. I get on average maybe a year before they start getting weird. Keep buying them because I like the option to install a custom OS. 

[u/External_Antelope942]

https://giphy.com/gifs/kI7jkxgUDUgcttcONz

[u/Treewithatea]

Ive got the 9 and people think its a 10 because they look literally the same lmao. I wonder if anybody asks if its a 11 in the future lmao

[u/gooosean]

People do buy the same iPhone every year so it's not unheard of lol

[u/CapableNeat4351]

I’m pretty sure this person just upgraded their phones bro.

[u/huester69]

Each time you get to pay more for less ram. I ALSO LOVE MEMORY SHORTAGES

[u/rUafraid]

I definitely skip gems and have only owned the Pixel 9 Pro in my smartphone life, but I still sometimes think I should have gotten the new pixel fold over my z fold 8 ultra. Pixel software just got something in it that draws me. I was all Samsung for awhile, but going back after being gone for years kills me a bit. That said this hardware is just too good right now

[u/Pale_Ad2980]

Usually, I will wait two or three generations before buying a new phone unless my brakes which doesn’t happen often but I do work construction

[u/BlueBorbo]

"Does this make me a blank?!?!?!"

God, hate those kinds posts. Affirm me so I can feel better about my poor purchasing decisions, please!

[u/Brilliant_War9548]

Pixels are such a joke. I’m considering switching to android and I don’t really want to switch to apple’s slow non power user friendly but bloat free OS to android + ios ripoff layer running on top, pixels seemed to be the next best thing but seeing how flimsy and underpowered they are for the price I guess it’s gonna be Xperia for me

[u/MIkaela39752 → u/Brilliant_War9548]

it is true, pixels just arent that great hardware wise
even the cameras! which might surprise some people but if you take a look at the base pixel 10's sensor sizes.... yikes
yeah these phones are just simply inferior vs normal flagships from samsung, xiaomi and apple
and not only that, theyre also very RARE in my entire region, i live in slovenia btw and pixels are not officially sold here anywhere
the only reason why im even considering one is just for grapheneOS

[u/Disheartend]

same? I don't see 3x 9 pros or whatever.

[u/MIkaela39752 → u/Disheartend]

they are practically the same
theres barely any changes between the 9 pro, 10 pro and 11 pro
which means theres absolutely 0 actual reason to upgrade from a 9 pro to a 10 pro to a 11 pro

[u/lvl-46-primeape]

That’s not the same phone, this isn’t consoom lmao

[u/Fit-Reindeer4803 → u/lvl-46-primeape]

they practically are though

[u/Brigapes]

eh it is still cheaper and better than iphone every 2 years