Should I Upgrade My Device?

Three questions you should ask yourself before an upgrade

We live in an era of upgrades. Every year, companies come out with new versions of their products rolling out improved features with each release attempting to provide something irresistible better than the last.

This is a good thing, also, a bad thing. And, it poses challenges for those looking to make more intentional purchases. In this article, I’m gonna break down my approach to upgrades and how to decide when is the right time to buy in.

I’m someone who calls himself a minimalist.

I don’t actually look in the mirror and call myself a minimalist.

Now, that I’ve implemented it into my life, it’s kind of in the background. It’s not something I really think about too often besides when I’m writing articles like this one.

But I do realize that people have a lot of misconceptions about what it means to be a minimalist, what it means to live an intentional life, especially as it relates to technology.

But here’s the truth, I’m not a big fan of caves. I like being connected. I wouldn’t be very productive if I never upgraded from my 13" HP x360 stream laptop and my photos would look like shi*t if I decided to stick with my old Sony mobile phone that I started out with in college.

So, upgrading to me isn’t just a convenience, it’s not a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity for the work that I do. And, this constant improvement is also vital for the companies that are making the products as well.

There’s fierce competition when it comes to personal technology. Smartphones, laptops, cameras and even headphones have multiple companies vying for your income and attention. This means they’ve got to actually deliver.

They need to make real improvements to their products to deliver a better experience, improve technology or new features the end user. If they don’t, they risk losing customers and potentially even killing their company entirely.

But this constant upgrading can also be a bad thing. Apple has released a new version or variation of the iPhone every year since 2007. It was hard, not to get excited about the hype around these product laces since Steve Jobs told: “What we’re gonna do is get rid of all these buttons.”

It’s like a gender-reveal on crack. There’s a lot of theatrics to these releases and, companies do as much as they can to prove to you why it’s worth making the upgrade. And, as people are upgrading their phones less frequently than years past, manufacturers are looking for new ways to get you to buy in.

I think there is this issue right now of upgrading to new devices, or not upgrading to new devices because you don’t feel that all that much has changed. Slap another camera on and then people are gonna look at the new device and say:

“Oh! It’s upgraded, it’s new!”

You need a way physically for people around you to know when you place it on the table or hold it to your head that it’s newer, better, and you had the money to buy it.

They purposefully reinvent the look of the phone. Add more cameras, increase the screen size, eliminate the bevel, make it thinner, make it bigger, make it smaller, matte finish, polish coating, new colours, sometimes because it makes the phone better. But many of these changes are completely arbitrary. They want the phone to look different.

In the past, your vehicle was one of the biggest status symbols you could have. And while they still hold a place for those looking to reveal the true size of their ego. These days it’s much easier to show your status with what’s in your pocket.

Image source

Technology is the new status symbol. From our headphones to our laptops. It’s a message to those around us the kind of person we are and the kind of money we have. It’s also worth noting that it works.

In the reverse, I’m thinking about people that refuse to upgrade and brag about still using a flip phone.

Can you believe these guys? Now, if you’re like Larry King and Garry Marshall, and you never want to upgrade your phone, you want that same flip phone you’ve had for the past ten years, that’s great. We applaud you, we commend you for your bravery. But for the rest of us who are really into technology, and who enjoy and upgrade every once in a while, things are gonna be a little bit challenging.

It’s difficult because we do need to upgrade our phones every once in a while. But not at the rate at which phones are being produced. Personally, whenever I’m thinking about making an upgrade, I have a very short and simple checklist that I follow to make sure that I’m making the best decision for my needs.

— Can I afford it?

This is really the bar you should be setting for yourself anytime you’re making a non-essential purchase. If you’re in credit card debt, if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, it’s probably not the best time to spend a thousand dollars on a phone. Your phone upgrade is not essential. Getting out of debt, paying off your credit card bills, starting a retirement account, those things are.

So, if you’re not doing great financially right now, just be like Larry. Pull out that flip phone, suck it up for a couple more years until you get yourself in better financial standing.

If you’ve got the money the next question I’d ask is:

— How is my current device holding up?

This sophisticated graph shows the time-frustration correlation. The amount of time I can deal with a slow functioning highly frustrating device is pretty limited.

If I’m constantly having trouble with Bluetooth, software bugs, slow responsiveness, and short battery life, I’ll start to think about making an upgrade.

And, that happened…

Apple said they did this to extend the battery life of older phones. It sparked a lot of controversies online about whether Apple was intentionally making you want to buy a new phone out of frustration. They probably could have avoided some of this blowback by giving an option for the user or at the very least being transparent about it upfront.

Either way, you might want to think before updating the software on your older phone. The new software is designed for faster processing power and yours might not hold up.

There are some things you can do to get more mileage out of your device. You can have the battery replaced, you can repair the screen, you can use a case so it’s safe against slips and falls.

The last question:

— Is the difference worth it?

So, when I’m upgrading for one device to the next, the last thing that I really think about is are the features worth it, is there an actual difference between one phone and the next. And from a year-to-year basis that has never been true for me, but over the course of three years, you can really start to notice some significant improvements.

The two features that I really look for, and that impact my purchasing decision the most are the stability as well as the camera. The other features don’t really make a huge difference to me.

Face detection, thumbprint technology, augmented reality. I just don’t really care those technology upgrades on my phone that much to for it to be worth it for other reasons. Obviously, your decisions may be completely different than mine depending upon how you use your phone.

As Marques Brownlee told:

“This is the new iPad pro, it is an incredible tablet!

Still an iPad though.”

And, that’s something that I’ve been saying more and more lately.

There’s a new phone, but it’s still a phone.

There’s a new computer, but it’s still a computer.

It still does the same thing that it’s always done, but it’s just a little bit nicer, a little bit bigger, a little bit better pixels.

That little bit I try not to let get in the way of my own well-being. I try to make it a daily practice to be happy and grateful for the things that I have, and not always so hyper-focused on the next thing.