Peter Vogel’s Tech Wise
Peter Vogel notes people are holding on to their cellphones longer than in the past. Photo: Pexels, AS Photography.
Hands up if you’ve had your current mobile phone longer than five years. You won’t be alone.
It seems we are holding onto our current handsets longer than was the case say a decade ago. And it is no wonder. With handset costs ever spiralling upwards, and with flagship devices exceeding $2000 in some cases here in Canada, it is little wonder we aren’t swapping out as readily for the latest device.
Yes, many still “buy” handsets through two-year plans from service providers, at steep monthly rates and/or with steep buyouts at the end of the term, but generally speaking the best value lies in buying the device outright. The less leverage you give the providers the better generally it is for the consumer.
Service providers used to rely on three-year plans but those were eliminated by order of the regulator, the CRTC. For many, replacing a phone after just two years seems overkill.
In my own case my handset really needs to be replaced. It is a Samsung Note 9, released ca. 2019. Many aficionados consider the Note 9 the epitome of the Galaxy line of Samsung’s flagship phones. Beautiful screen, terrific security, excellent performance, and of course the S-pen or stylus which became a hallmark of the line. Also unusual at the time was wireless charging and USB-C connectivity.
2019? I can hear you laughing now. Yes, that is indeed far too old. The underlying operating system, Android, stopped updating years ago. And in recent months certain applications have began demanding an update. When those demands start surfacing from key Google applications you know it is time to act.
My Note 9 is the second of the Note lineup I have owned. I related in a previous column how I accidentally caused the destruction of my Note 8 (a large gravel truck driving over such a handset won’t leave much to look at). I also related how I used the services of Mobile Klinik, at the time just acquired by Telus, to recover nearly all the data from the remains of the phone and transfer it to a used “9” I bought from them.
That replacement unit has never given me a problem. Its battery has remained good all these years, with daily charging, mostly wireless but via USB-C with a laptop charger in recent years. I have lost the use of the S-pen unfortunately; it snapped and replacements are difficult to source as they are model-specific. The screen remains in excellent condition, protected by a Ghost Armour coating and an Otter Box case. However, this is my third Otter Box case. These cases wear out at the button locations, and being device-specific, they eventually cannot be replaced for devices long out of production.
Mobile phone service providers have managed to separate Canadians from money they didn’t know they had, and to keep doing that year after year. Consider that the category of mobile phones simply didn’t exist 30 years ago. We all depended on landlines, typically costing in the $15 a month range. Over time those landlines have mostly disappeared (if you still have one be sure you aren’t spending more than about $8 a month for it). I still keep one, basically as a form of cheap insurance.
I wrote many a column in previous years on my battles with provider Telus to keep my old-school copper landline. Eventually I was forced to back down when the company actually began cutting off service. Copper infrastructure was incredibly reliable but parts to maintain the backend became increasingly difficult to obtain. I still have the landline, only the underlying structure is now fibre; I did insist though that the company provide a backup power supply. With copper infrastructure the various switching centres maintained the backup power and even when my house was at one time without power for a couple of days the landline just kept working. That wouldn’t be the case with today’s landlines, nor with the cellular infrastructure.
As for that Note 9 handset. Yes, it is time for a replacement but the cost of the equivalent flagship today is more than double the $1300 cost of the 8 back in 2018. Do I stay with the Note/Galaxy lineup, or do I go with say a foldable format? I’m inclined to stay with the same form factor and definitely want to get back the functionality of the S-pen.
Not unlike what we see with cars, there is a dropoff in value once you walk out of the store with a new flagship mobile. Once a successor model is released that dropoff jumps even more. Having experienced the service, guarantees, and pricing at the Mobile Klinik I’m likely to begin my replacement search there. I will, however, have to await Samsung’s release of the successor to the current Galaxy S26 Ultra in order for that unit to begin showing up for resale.
Currently, in the used Android flagship market, the sweet spot seems to be the S24 generation. This buys the best combination of late-model hardware and years of service left before software updates become problematic.
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