Do you still chase peak gadget specs, or did something quieter win out?
Honest question after a few upgrade cycles: the gap between “great” and “fine” on a review score often mattered less day to day than battery life, repairability, and whether the maker still ships updates. Curious what you actually weigh now before you buy — no brands required.
I never chased top specs. I always chose the cheapest options that fit the minimum recommended specs for the software I was upgrading for.
honestly I don’t feel like gadgets are a thing like they used to be. everything seems to be some variation on a smartphone thing nowadyas. Like I remember gadget sections in magazines and gadget shows and was excitied to see some doodad but now. meh.
Your post feels like it has a case of slopspeak 🤔
Might wanna get that checked out. If you are indeed a human who wrote those words yourself.
New account, two sloppy text posts and a slop profile picture. Account with the same name exists on the AndroidCentral forums, also new, also talks like an unsocialised child raised in the basement of an adtech firm. Someone’s instructed it to misspell “alot”, that’s cute.
https://techcortado.com/disclaimer.html claims the posts are “written with help from AI tools, then checked and edited before they go up”. I wonder if there’s not a very deliberate omission of “by a human” in there.
Do you still chase peak gadget specs
Not since the last millineum when I was a teenager.
did something quieter win out
How quiet is money? Even when making a lot more of it than I do today, it still never made sense to me to be all the way out on the bleeding edge. I debated for ages before getting my first iPhone and only got two models in a row because I unfortunately broke the first one. I now use devices until they physically die or basically cannot run apps anymore (I have a iPad I got for free that fell into this category; it basically couldn’t even do video anymore which is most of how I used it).
I’ve used specs only as a minimum to target.
What’s this “still” you speak of?
Chasing the latest specs has never been useful to me. It’s for people with more money than sense.
These days, I almost cannot rely on reviews. I have to find things out myself and to determine that, I need to filter what it is I exactly want from something. So it comes down to things like reliability. Can it do everything I would ask of it to? If it can, then it is something I’d get and work a budget around.
priorities for me:
- open-source (increases the likelihood of all the below) or steward-ownership
- not eco-system locked
- repairable and/ or has generic parts available
- longevity reviews and good materials (steel, glass, etc.)
- price
Absolutely not - privacy, security, open-source stack and avoiding reliance on proprietary US and Chinese tech is where I’m at these days. I’ll happily sacrifice specs if can achieve those.
I also prefer to buy second-hand to lower costs and reduce e-waste.
The upgrades based on specs are artificial money grabs based on impractical psychometric based consumer modelling and planned obsalescence.
As I get older, I’m increasingly prone to abandoning things entirely. This may be my last smartphone.
For consoles and phones, I’ve stopped caring about screen resolution past 1080p. I have an eye disability that makes it hard to tell the difference anyway. It’s why I haven’t been sold on a Switch 2, I just see it as a paygate
I’ve stopped caring about screen resolution past 1080p
Its funny, was considering the same for my TV/movies library. My eyes are fine but i’m happy enough with 1080p. Stopped bothering with 4k a while back.
The older I got the more politics began to matter to me, culminating in:
- Is it available second hand? If yes, buy. If no:
- Is it available new and made in the EU? If yes or no and looking outside the EU:
- Can I live with myself giving money to the producer in question, considering ecological and ethical aspects? If yes, buy. If no:
- Do I, regardless of 3, need* it? If yes, buy. If no, abandon purchase.
Note that 4 is a filter that 1, 2 and 3 are always and continuously weighed against.
If the item passes 1 through 4, I tend to buy the best** that I can afford, in order to get the fullest experience, because YOLO.
*my needs are subject to change based on peer pressure, mental health, laziness, resolve, season and other things. In my society, with my skin color and assigned gender, I am privileged enough so that my needs rarely - if ever - pertain to survival.
**the definition of best depends on the item in question, on its function and my use case. If I’m looking for a lightbulb because I want to increase the perceived coziness in a room, I go for the dimmest and warmest light, while if I’m looking for a lightbulb because I need to see better when working, I go for the brightest and coolest light.
- Can I live with myself giving money to the producer in question, considering ecological and ethical aspects?
Brother, I can’t even buy a chocolate bar that meets these requirements, how the hell are you sourcing your electronics?
It’s easy: I don’t 🫠 when it comes to chocolate, I buy Tony’s, though it doesn’t run Doom at 60 fps. As for electronics, I look at the very basic certifications: CE, RoHs and Energy Star ratings. I avoid nvidia, Google and Microsoft. I only by phones second hand so that I can have the hardware that I want to have without supporting a producer that I possibly don’t want to support. But, what you’re saying is so true. Electronics and ecology and ethics rarely fit in the same…
Bucket? Hat?Basket? What’s the saying again? 🤣
Products are actually getting worse, more locked down, more enshittified.
Longevity > cutting edge technology
I don’t plan to buy a car built after 2022 ever.
Why 2022? I feel the same way but my date is older. I don’t want anything with lane assist or the modern tech stack. Or OTA updates.
I was just taking a potshot at the dates, since I’ve been happily driving a 2016 for the past 6 years, i don’t know what the exact inflection point for mass enshittification was.
Surveillance, tracking, OTA, and poor repairability are all things I’m hoping to avoid in the future.
What’s a good cut-off date?
Early 2000’ ish. Might depend on the car for +/- a few years.
Back in the day I chased specs coz you noticed the difference, but i just wait for a few cycles now. Ive had my phone since 2020 and will wait until it dies until i upgrade
I built my previous computer in 2012 and used it until 2024. Building a new rig in 2024 was like watching the bridge collapse behind me. I don’t think I’m going to meaningfully upgrade my computer for two decades at this rate.
And for phones, all I look for are SD card slots and headphone jacks, so I’m already not getting the best out there. Good, I ain’t paying for that shit anyway.
