HACKER Q&A
📣 hkt

Is there a 'classic' smartphone that has a big secondary market?


I'm taking my cue from having recently bought an old thinkpad in this: 10+ year old laptops that are pretty much on a par with modern hardware, but which cost only £200 or sometimes less. Plus, a community of enthusiasts doing things like mods, and writing open firmware.

Are there any smartphone models that receive as much love, and last as long?

  👤 WarOnPrivacy Accepted Answer ✓
I'm not sure there is a place where fans and the secondary market overlap. The closest we get is the rooting community.

But even there, there doesn't seem to be any particular standout models. Part of the issue is that OS versions have a shorter window and phones are only compatible with a few of them.

Even with this short lifespan, I wish notorious rooting favorites would emerge. It might reduce the 10 days of research I need to find my next (affordable+rootable) handset.

sidebar: It just took me 2 weeks to decide on a Moto G100. My req were: rootable, dual physical GSM sim, >4500 MAh, min 128GB/8GB, ~$200 & for sale in N.America.

👤 legrande
> Are there any smartphone models that receive as much love, and last as long?

Most smartphones have planned obsolescence[0] built in, so they force you to upgrade. A truly long-time phone would be one of those 'dumb' or 'feature phone' phones by Nokia. Some even ship with 4G compat and have apps like WhatsApp built in, and nothing else. There is a myth I want to dispel that these are 'senior phones'. They have real value for all generations.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence