The 4 Year Cell Phone?

[Marzipan]

https://www.engadget.com/2020/02/26/teracube-android-hands-on/

price is about $300 USD and comes with a 4 year warranty that lets you send your phone in for whatever needs to be fixed on a $39 flat service fee.

I think this is something for the low to mid end mid phone crowd could get behind as the 4 year old Samsung A5 I'm borrowing will work, but it's processing power is a bit wanting now. my only worry is the fact the P60 is already an old CPU.

 

[gingerbee]

is it really a warranty if you have to pay ???

 

[sswilson]

Yeah.... 4 year "paid" warranty on hardware that's going to be obsolete in 1 or 2 years? Maybe in a developing market, but personally, I've got a hard time sticking with decent mid-range hardware for 2 years let alone 4.

 

[Marzipan]

Yeah.... 4 year "paid" warranty on hardware that's going to be obsolete in 1 or 2 years? Maybe in a developing market, but personally, I've got a hard time sticking with decent mid-range hardware for 2 years let alone 4.

you're not the target audience...think of all those out there with iPhone 4's and 6's still...they're the target.

is it really a warranty if you have to pay ???

and yeah...in all the phone extended warranty terms and conditions, the providers almost all have some sort of service fee. take my current iPhone 8 Plus claim...it can be as low as $50 or as high as $400, depending on what's gone wrong.

 

[Izerous]

They treat it like an insurance deductable anymore. Something like that seems like it would be ideal for say my grandmother though who sticks with the same phone until it falls apart. She had a telus branded flip phone until just about 2 years ago.

 

[JD]

I suppose his original idea might have been sound, but it looks like he failed to deliver on it. Other than having a cheap service plan should your phone break within 4 years, I'm not sure where the benefit is to the consumer or the environment.

I'd argue most phones within the past 4 years still work fine today if they haven't been damaged beyond use. It's more about changing consumer perspective (back) to wanting something for an extended period of time.

 

[Shadowmeph]

I still am using my first android phone galaxy core which is old but if and or when I buy a new cell phone I wont "pay "for a warranty

 

[gingerbee]

I just buy a new cell every 2 to 4 years depends how my cell holds up ( or how much I like it or not )

 

[Bond007]

Interesting idea, but I would pass. A phone that is $300 to start isn’t going to be worth the $40 to repair in the later part of the warranty.

 

[Lysrin]

This comment is interesting, if they can do it (bold added):

'"Everyone has this perception that software updates slow down their phones," added Mittal. "Our response is, we can make sure that the phone runs smoothly for four years. It can happen. Android is open source [...] we'll be able to tune every update so that the phone keeps running smoothly."'

If they can deliver on that and keep things running smoothly, well that might make it worthwhile for some.

For me, staying behind one gen and buying used phones has worked great and made the cost of upgrades when I felt like it more palatable. I am still amazed at the performance of my Nexus 5. My daughter just stopped using it as she inherited my Pixel 2 but it was still running very well. That was a champ of a phone!