this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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Frugal

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Frugal Flagship iPhone (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago by manualoverride@lemmy.world to c/frugal@lemmy.world
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In 2017 my employer gave me £1150 to buy my own iPhone X for work. I knew I would not be working there forever and decided to start saving £10 per month in monthly saver accounts, 2 years later I left the company and they didn’t want the phone back as it was too old. Yay!

I continued saving every month in accounts ranging from ~4-8% interest and my most recent monthly saver just matured and my fund has reached £1121.64

I’ve also been really savvy with my mobile plans over the last 5 years, my current monthly charge is £6 but has been as low as £3, and has absolutely been less than £5 on average. So my mobile phone costs have been on average £15pm.

The iPhoneX is not getting software/security updates anymore, but there is nothing really worth having in this years upgrade:

  • 120hz vs. 120hz with ProMotion
  • MagSafe - meh!
  • 12MP vs. 48MP camera with better low light
  • 4G vs. 5G - but HD video streaming works perfectly on 4G.

Do I keep saving and ignore the upgrade again? Or am I silly for running a phone with no security updates because I’m not that interested in a better camera?

Either way I thought my little-by-little saving to get something nice and a little extravagant was worth sharing. The number of people with £50-£60 phone contracts is crazy.

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[–] glitching@lemmy.ml -1 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

so you got a phone that works for you but you still want to replace it because... idk, just 'cause.

you could spring for an used, ex-flasgship phone that was abandoned by its brand but still has lineageOS support. e.g. Poco F1 or Oneplus 6T fit that bill. I can get em locally in the $50-$100 region. that thing has a fast SDM845, 8 GB RAM, full LineageOS support and even postmarketOS, Mobian and Ubuntu touch support, you can swap the batteries, etc.

so for like 5% of your budget, you get a new toy to play with and test what life is like on the other side of the fence and possibly gradually ween yourself off the corpo spyware. so, if it scratches your itch for that kinda money, I'd call that frugal.

[–] StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

so you got a phone that works for you but you still want to replace it because... idk, just 'cause.

From the post:

Or am I silly for running a phone with no security updates because I’m not that interested in a better camera?

[–] glitching@lemmy.ml -1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

phone still works, apps get updates, they don't magically disolve in thin air when there's no more updates.

[–] AHamSandwich@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The lengths some people will go to not admit they were wrong never cease to amaze me.

[–] glitching@lemmy.ml -2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I guess there's your mistake - there has to be a right and wrong and we should all be on one side of it.

this is my take on "should I spend a THOUSAND+ bucks/pounds/feathers" on an easily breakable/losable/stealable slab of glass. in a community called "frugal".

[–] AHamSandwich@lemmy.world 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

I feel you're intentionally missing the point.

  1. Op asked if they should replace their phone due to the lack of security updates.
  2. You criticized OP for wanting to replace it "just 'cause".
  3. Someone pointed out that they had a stated reason for considering replacing it.
  4. Your response was to disagree with that reason, despite it clearly not being in the context of the comment, instead of acknowledging that your criticism was unfounded.
[–] glitching@lemmy.ml -2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I like the list, it purports you got a lot of things in there.

I guess you missed the 85% of my post that lists actual, actionable information pertaining to OP's question, that in addition to my take on it (which, in case it's not visible from orbit, is HELL NO) offers a solution to OP's problem ("unsupported phone") for a twentieth of their budget.

I also see you contributing dick to said question.

[–] AHamSandwich@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I'm unsurprised but disappointed you'd just deflect instead of addressing the topic being discussed. I'm raising a toddler, you get used to it, although the behavior is always more distressing in adults.

I highly suggest giving this article a read:

https://ameliabehaviour.com/accepting-responsibility/

I found this quote to be particularly impactful:

Here’s one more key message you need to carry with you, especially when your ~~children~~ Lemmings have been defensive and hostile to feedback: everybody makes mistakes, and that’s okay.

We see you and we accept you, even if you become defensive and hostile when shown your mistakes.

[–] manualoverride@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I’ve not heard of lineageOS until today, PostmarketOS looks interesting, but with so many different devices it’s got to be really hard to keep track of all the different distros and make sure nothing nefarious slips in.

In all likelihood I will need a ~£100 battery replacement soon, while my phone works for my current use case it is getting less secure and some apps have already dropped support for iOS16. I’m just planning for my future and thought my planning process might be interesting for other frugal people.

While your options are more frugal they are probably not secure enough for me, but I will take a look.

I’ve not seen any credible reports of Apple devices containing spyware inherently.

[–] glitching@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 hours ago

first off, there is no spyware shipped with iOS, iOS is the spyware. aside from apple being repeatedly caught lying about the extent of its spying, the convoluted and cumbersome iCloud decoupling with the unencrypted backups and the fact that you have a covert peer-to-peer network running on your own hardware that you can't turn off or opt out of should be more than enough to give those fucks zero benefit of doubt.

second, if you've been on iOS since the iPhone X days, you have no idea what's possible on this side of the fence. that's why I'm suggesting getting a cheap, yet capable, used phone and figuring out things without breaking the budget. you could get a flagship pixel or whatnot for the same purpose, but this is the beauty of android - a $50 phone runs the same software as a $1000 one.

I assure you, you're plenty safe and secure with a regular, supported lineageOS build, unless you're pursued by nation-state actors and such. the postmarketOS and friends note was to illustrate the plethora of options you got with the same piece of hardware; none of them are ready for prime time.

[–] walden@sub.wetshaving.social 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think buying an iPhone isn't being frugal. Instead, you're just being a good saver which in many ways is more important than being frugal.

Some people love technology and having the latest gadget brings them joy. You don't sound like that type of person.

There are tons of Android devices out there with much better bang for the buck.

[–] manualoverride@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It’s one of those situations where if I jump to another ecosystem it will be a hassle, and ideally I would ideally avoid Google, maybe a Graphene or Fairphone but they are still Android forks.

I may end up having to replace a phone half the price after 4-5 years, rather than 8-10 years.

It’s not really possible to know what phone will last longer, but the higher end phones tend to have the latest tech, and will last longer, even if it’s just a couple of years.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

ideally I would ideally avoid Google, maybe a Graphene or Fairphone but they are still Android forks.

You fear android, so you'll stick to apple? Mate, please consider what you're saying and, more importantly, where that comes from.

[–] manualoverride@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago

I’m a bit confused about your point here, Google’s business model is creating a profile on you to sell advertising, so is Microsoft, Apple sells the hardware for a high markup and keeps you in its walled garden in exchange for privacy, or at least there are no credible reports of Apple ‘double dipping’ and selling your tracking and browsing data.

I would rather have open source and fully transparent and secure, maybe Linux-based mobile OS, but I don’t think that currently exists.

[–] dangling_cat@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Idk the myth of Apple being a luxury brand. It’s true like 7 years ago, but all flagship devices from major brands cost 1k if not more.

Buying the latest tech and using it for a long time is the most frugal thing ever. Buying outdated tech just means it gets outdated sooner.

OP, why not wait till Apple releases their new model in this fall and compare it to other brands to see which one you like :3

[–] manualoverride@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank you! This was my thought exactly, I’m skimming MacRumors for the details of the 17 to see if I should start another fixed saver or buy one in September.

I really want to have as little impact on the world as I can and keeping a phone for a long time is frugal and planet friendly. My current one does need rebooting about once a week now or it loses network connection. But that’s only 52 reboots a year :)

I think I’m just going to start a new saver anyway, the chances of anything truly worthwhile is very slim.

[–] cron@feddit.org 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My personal take is to go for last year's high-end hardware. Of course with modern tech, you lose one year of software updates/support, but often at 30-50% off compared to the latest generation.

With an expected usable lifespan of 5-7 years, this is a good deal.

[–] manualoverride@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I did plan on that last year but the 15 only dropped by about 10% (£100), so less than the value of one year of improvement for an 8 year lifespan device. I will keep an eye on this again as sometimes places like Costco have silly offers to clear stock.

[–] themoonisacheese@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"frugal flagship model of luxury brand"

[–] manualoverride@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I did hesitate to post this here, as I’m always frugal, but this is something I have in my hand/pocket all day. Buying a cheap phone is sometimes (but not always) a false economy. I don’t know anyone who spends less than £15pm on their mobile plan and phone.