Honestly LG makes darn good phones for the money. I've rarely ever had any issues with mine since I got it and fully expect it to get me to 2025 or beyond.
Ahh, I see you too are a man of culture. I had a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Edge in 2014, and kept it until it literally expired in 2019 (it refused to charge any battery). The Note 4 Edge was I believe the very last Sammy to have an actual removable battery. Replaced it with an LG V40 (blue) which I still have - I got it on a special offer as it was an end of line clearance. It also had three cameras before the iPhone did. I do like to have a big phone because I have big clumsy trotters.
I fully expect though that by 2024 it'll be on the way out though. And that brings me on to a trend in modern tech that really fucking gets right up my nose. Devices, and indeed society in general, is so throwaway. Now I'm no Greta Thunberg fan but it just feels wasteful to chuck a slab of glass and rare earth metals every year even when it's still functional and even if it has terminally died given the scarcity and Chinese monopoly on such minerals and that you need to crush literally hundreds of tons of rock to get 1 kg of some of those metals, surely it can all be broken down and recycled at the very least. Also, the energy used (read: in practice, oil) to extract those minerals and form them into a hipster executive toy.
Yesterday I picked up from a local seller a classic boombox. It's a Sharp VZ-2000 if you must know. The bloke found it in a house clearance from some old chap who had died and who was a dance instructor. He bought it back in 1983 to teach his tango classes because it was portable, loud enough to fill a large gymnasium and still remain audible and good quality, and could play both vinyl and tapes. Also the linear tracking / auto music search meant that he could cue up a song without having to wind back and forth to get to it.
It is 38 years old. That's older than me. Yet despite this, it is still pretty much 90% functional. Okay, the medium wave radio on it doesn't work but there's nothing on medium wave here in bongland anyhow. The vinyl turntable I think needs new belts but the tape deck just needed some isopropyl alcohol rubbed on the heads and the capstan and pinch roller and it was as clear and loud as you like. It sounds bigger, richer, and "fuller" than the speakers linked up to my PC or any of my modern audio gear, and that's from frickin' cassette tapes and shit tier Type 1 cassette tapes with no Dolby at that. It can run off the mains or from 10 D-cell batteries and I've not tried running down the batteries to see what total play-time one gets from it, but I bet it's considerable. It also has a really thick plastic case (at least 3mm all around) and a steel frame. It has probably survived being bashed around gyms, dance halls, town squares, and milongas for 10-15 years and then 20+ years in an attic somewhere. And other than the aforementioned issues with the belts and dirt and possibly rust on some of the switchgear (it crackles a bit when switching between radio, tape, and vinyl modes), it is still in excellent nick.
I also own a bluetooth speaker that I used to play music from my phone onto. Do you think that in 2060, that bluetooth speaker will still be functional?
Will it fuck.
The best bit? That wasn't even Sharp's flagship model when it came out. That was the GF-777 which is even louder and even more indestructible.
Old tech was built to last, and to be easily repairable. Modern tech is planned obsolescent trash that is built to CONSOOME PRODUCT, THEN GET EXCITED FOR NEXT PRODUCT. Your £1,000 iPhone 12 or whichever one they're up to is the landfill fodder of 2025. My £375 ghetto blaster (that was its price on release - about £1,200 today) is still happily annoying the neighbours nearly 40 years later.
