I’d wager that owning an iPhone is cheaper than a Samsung Galaxy or likely any premium Android.

An iPhone is typically getting 6 years of iOS versions, plus an additional 1-2 years of security updates. For instance, the iPhone X, announced in Fall 2017 was on latest iOS until iOS 17 comes in this month. iPhone 6S, released in Sep 2015, is still getting security updates.

If you are someone who runs their phone into the ground until the end of security updates, iPhone wins hands down. If you are someone who wants the latest and greatest, iPhone hold resale value like no other and its not even close.

Obsidian is also in the “built with Electron, and doesn’t make me want to scream” bucket for me.

I would argue that VSCode is the big exception.

You should do this anyway - it funds great original educational content, and is quite good value.

Okay. Trying picking up a iPhone X (releases Sep 2017) vs iPhone 14 Pro and see the difference. There are a lot of quality of life improvements that make a noticeable difference in user experience.

• 120hz
• better battery life
• 2x as fast charge
• much brighter screen, always on if that interests you
• triple camera sensors, with wide lens vs double, no wide lens
• LiDAR to improve portrait photos
• faster Face ID (used 100s of times a day)
• satellite communication for emergencies
• MagSafe charging/docking ability
• 5G (really only find it useful for hotspots)

I can confidently say everyone of these features has improved my user experience. None of them by their self are earth shattering, but taken as a whole, the constant iterative improvements have amounted to quite a lot.

Agreed, but that is not what OP said.

Not sure I agree that phone tech has peaked a couple years ago for the average user. What technology peaked years ago?

Camera? Efficient processors? Display panels? Biometrics? Batteries? Cellular/Wi-Fi modems? Emergency satellite connectivity? I cannot think of a single technology (I am on iPhone 14 Pro) that is not at least marginally better than a year or two ago, and pretty meaningful improvement from ~5 years ago.

The rate of technological improvement has slowed or plateaued, but there is a pretty reasonable argument that current flagship technologies are the “peak”, even for average user, if only incrementally. I agree that this plateau, coupled with upgrade cost, is making it a harder choice to decide to upgrade for average user.

Technology?