Why Do You Buy a New Phone Every Year?

I'm curious, there are people here who spend $2k every year on the latest phone.

Why?

Comments

  • my work offers salary sacrifice.
    Wife’s work allows her to claim $n per month, use it or lose it. Have kids so they get hand me downs. When you use mobiles for work it’s a small price for the reliability. So between us, yes we get a new phone every year, but use it for 2 years before handing down.

  • High yield investment to them obviously.

  • I buy brand new toilet paper, every time. No 2nd hand stuff for me, take that op.

    • Why would you buy toilet paper every year?

      • Why buy toilet paper at all. Use water.

        What an utter waste… these people must have taken a loan to finance such a lavish purchase and clearly to show off.

  • It’s their money, why would you care? There are people who spend 2K/daily. The world is full of rich people.

  • I have no idea why people buy one every year too?? maybe it's a tax thing?

    • -1

      Scroll up and find my comments (minus the toilet paper saving one). It's literally free or almost free to do so. People just don't know how. I've explained the process in great detail when the S23 launched and helped a bunch of people.

      Given how stingy I am, there is no way I'd spend even more than $200 a year on a new phone. And yet I always have a $2k phone every year doing a simple switcheroo.

      • +3

        Thanks, but for someone like me who is not on a Telstra, JB or etc plan but just have a sim only plan, how would it work? do you know?

        • Depends how much you're paying for your sim only. I'm on a $69/month 12 month sim only plan (reduced to $49/month by speaking to the live chat Telstra rep). You have to work out the numbers and see what's best.

          It's always best to time it with the launch of whatever phone you're looking for, so that the 12 month plan expires and you can easily recycle and repeat yearly.

        • So you can sign up for a new plan+phone whenever your ready, and the price is right.

          I posted earlier here: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/comment/14347157/redir

          But the thing I forgot to mention is that I don't reset the plan at the same time every year, but wait until a good deal comes along. So for example, I think my old plan expired in February, then I immediately swapped to month-to-month on tangerine which was the cheapest. And then signed up to a jbhifi plan in April when there was a good deal.
          The details are explained in my link above.

  • if you are talking about the iphone pro max, yeh i bought one but its an upgrade from a base iphone 11 from 2019
    only tech nerds or youtube reviewers or film makers upgrade iphones every year, the jump in technology is not that big to justify yearly upgrades, anyone with an iphone 13 is not missing out on much compared to an iphone 15 but for me coming from a base 11 its a huge upgrade, will keep it for 4 years same as the iphone 11. maybe even 5 until iphone 20

  • These people break their screens and have been carrying a cracked fone for 4mth by that time.

  • The phones with best camera are the most expensive generally. I personally use my phone for work with 2 project/site management apps plus outlook when out of office. Even so I paid $650 for S22 on telstra day sale, will keep this until it starts to really slow down. Would never pay full price for a phone so this will probably be the last flagship I buy! Doubt a 50% sale will happen again based on recent Telstra day sales!

    Also I'm on boost prepaid $300/yr

  • Iv'e never bought a phone
    using a gifted Galaxy s4 4G no VoLTE LineageOS 18.1 spent $30 on batteries over the last 6 years and splurged out $4 on a new case earlier this year
    will be forced to retire it next year due to 3G shutdown I have an old work HTC one A9 4GxVoLTE with a dead battery picked up new battery for $10 to fit next year.
    probably start looking for a 5G phone in 2024-2025

  • +1

    I buy the latest iPhone outright every year. I actually profit from doing so and lose money by not.

    1. Buy an iPhone - androids just don’t maintain their value
    2. Time your sale right - maybe a week or so out of the release date of the new phone
    3. Salary sacrifice
    4. Claim GST
    5. Price protection with 28 Degrees
    • how much $ per year for salary sacrifice? if the phone is 2.2k how the hell do you salary sacrifice the full amount in one year?

  • Waste of money. Every few years for me. I have Samsung S20 last forever.

  • -1

    Wow, I just found out that phones are $2K WTF?

    Last I checked few years ago a good one was $500 - under $1000.

    I don't think I have put a penny on it.

    Parent bought me a second hand Nokia then brand new Sony Erickson and Motorolla later on. The first smartphone dad bought me was iPhone 3 in 2008, iphone 4 in 2010 then my persistent aunt bought me iphone 7 plus as a gift in 2016 after she saw how old my phone was. Then later, my sister gave me her iPhone 12 max because she was gonna get the latest one.

    After seeing bunch of old usable phones sitting around their homes, I will always ask them first before forking $200 one if this one broke.

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