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posted by martyb on Monday December 28 2015, @10:09AM   Printer-friendly

Okay, there is at least a random chance that some of us or someone in our family got a new smartphone as a gift this year. Maybe you hand the old phone down to one of the kids for a wifi device. Maybe you thought better of trading it in, and having your data end up on the streets.

There are the usual perennial articles on this subject Such as this one from a site that appears somewhat reputable, or this one from BusinessInsider.

Note: Most GSM phones can be used to call 911 in the US/Canada even without a sim card present. Donations to Charities or Women's Shelters or Homeless service agencies is always an option as long as you wipe the phone completely.

So what does the Savvy Soylentil do with the old Smartphone?


[Update: removed derogatory phrasing that was present in original submission. -Ed.]

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1) by Unixnut on Monday December 28 2015, @10:50AM

    by Unixnut (5779) on Monday December 28 2015, @10:50AM (#281642)

    I mean, I never had a smart phone last long enough to even consider gifting it to someone else. They usually survive 12-18 months, before the screen gets cracked, or odd things start happening, like suddenly refusing to charge, the touchscreen giving incorrect position input or not registering presses in some areas, or the USB connector wearing out. Still have Nokia's and BB's from the early 2000s going strong (as my backup, when the smart phone inevitably stops working at the worst moment, like my S4 did the day before Christmas).

    Then again, I buy my phones outright, so I usually will buy a phone and use it until it breaks. Phones are expensive (400-600 Euros new), so I don't think the majority of people just buy a new phone because "oooh, shiny!" . Those rich enough to blow money like that are enough of a minority that them gifting the phone would not make a big dent.

    Plus they are the ones who usually sell their old phone second hand, to offset the price of the new one. Their old phones are still pretty new and usable by others.

    If I ever manage to have two smartphones concurrently, I would probably use the old one for Android development. I doubt any of them would last long enough for there to be a third spare smart phone that I could consider gifting.

  • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 28 2015, @01:12PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday December 28 2015, @01:12PM (#281663) Journal

    You gotta be more careful. Buy a phone case, a big bulky one, and a screen protector. My EVO 4G was in an otterbox and my Nexus 5 in in a Ballistic case. They have survived numerous ~1m falls to concrete. When I swapped on a new screen protector (they came in a 3-pack) I wiped off the phone and the condition of it could be described as practically brand new. No screen scratches and no case damage or scratches. So your phone will be more valuable if sold used (not that you want to sell a used smartphone.) As for the charge port, my guess is either rough handling of the phone while the charger cable is plugged in or a crappy USB connector which failed.

    All of my smart phones usually last 2+ years easy. I'm only on my second smartphone. First one was an EVO 4G in 2010 and then a Nexus 5 in 2013. Sill on the Nexus 5 and the recent Android 6 update fixed a number of smaller issues like the cameras awful autofocus.

    • (Score: 1) by Unixnut on Monday December 28 2015, @01:29PM

      by Unixnut (5779) on Monday December 28 2015, @01:29PM (#281673)

      I did, after I broke my third smartphone, I bought the toughest armoured case for it I could find. Added a good 1cm to all sides of the phone, 0,5 mm protrusion above the LCD, dual layer with thick rubber and polycarbonite shell, and the LCD still managed to get smashed when it fell on the carpeted floor :-(

      The only thing I can say, is that the phones were mostly Samsungs (2 x Note 2, 1 x S4). I had 2 HTC's both of which eventually developed odd touchscreen behaviour, and the USB charging failure was the note 2. The other note 2 had the USB port failure and cracked screen, and the S4 just has the broken LCD.

      Maybe just Samsung phones are fragile? Shame I like the vivid colours of the OLED screen and their hackability, otherwise I might consider a different phone in future.

      • (Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday December 28 2015, @01:38PM

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday December 28 2015, @01:38PM (#281677) Journal

        The Ballistic case I have for my Nexus 5 has a ~2mm protrusion above the LCD. Makes edge touch difficult but is rarely an issue. Best part is it doesn't add much to the sides, about 5mm, but the corners, they achilles heel of screen glass are thick. Still fits in my shirt pocket.

      • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Monday December 28 2015, @03:06PM

        by Nerdfest (80) on Monday December 28 2015, @03:06PM (#281701)

        My female-unit and I both had Samsung Captivates for 3 years and neither of them have more than a couple of scratches. I generally carried mine in a belt pouch (awesome fashion statement) but on several occasions had it fly out of my hand putting it away or something. Once it landed 10 feet away, face down on one of those polished concrete floors, after which it slid about 40 feet. One tiny scratch on the screen. I had a Nexus 4 with the stupid glass back fall from chair height onto a ceramic floor. I thought I was done for, but it lived without a mark.

        Perhaps later Samsungs are cheaper, or perhaps you're just unlucky. The one thing I've seen is that many people who carry their phones in their pockets tend to end up with problems with flaky connectivity, flaky screens, or flaky buttons. I think the constant stresses of the slight pressure of sitting, etc, add up and loosen connections. Despite the geek factor, use a belt pouch. It's convenient and protects the phone quite well.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @05:53PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 28 2015, @05:53PM (#281752)

        Try another case, try to be more careful with your phone, or maybe carry a rabbit foot. I've been using a Note 2 for ~2.5 years that was bought used and haven't had any issues but I've only dropped it twice.

  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Monday December 28 2015, @01:30PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday December 28 2015, @01:30PM (#281674)

    Everyone knows someone like that, but I still have a working Opti-moooooose with too little memory to actually do anything today and its replacement was a Defy that at least recently was still being used by my kids as a micro-tablet (mostly playing music).

    My experience is a five year old phone has too little memory and support to install modern music-type apps, but a 3-year old phone is marginally OK. The cutoff is probably around four years old and likely depends on the luxury level at the time, I'm sure there were phones in 2010 ranging from 128M of flash all the way up to a couple gigs and the bigger ones will run better.

    A lot has to do with patience. There are people who freak the heck out if google music takes more than three seconds to start, just like there's people that freak the heck out about people who spend $500/year to avoid having google music take more than three seconds to start.

    I have a 2012 Nexus 7 tablet, the one with memory problem that makes the flash slow over time till it dies, and believe it or not, with cyanogen installed I'm still using it as a kindle app dedicated device. Kindle app is like bottom of the barrel, when it takes kindle app more than 30 seconds to cold start, then you get to throw the device out.

    As for "why" you'd want a secondary device that only plays music or whatever, you take it camping or outside doing yardwork or exercise with the idea that when you drop it or otherwise lost, you won't care. Naturally now that I've prepared I've never needed that prep so even my old Optimoooooose S is still operational, although so limited its actually not usable with modern software. Also a minimum in phone size was reached last decade and every year since, phones have been exploding in size, and sometimes you just want a little phone, even if it can't make old fashioned phone calls and only works on wifi. Smartphone cameras are pretty bottom tier but if you really needed another camera, I guess it would work.