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A new smartphone again? Rethink unhealthy culture of frequent upgrades
(www.straitstimes.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
A big part of it is built in batteries that are difficult to replace. My phone has a removable battery and is on its third one now... still works fine and does everything I want it to, after 10 years of use.
Edit: It's running Lineage Os 18 (android 11) not the original android 5(?) it came with, so security updates are not an issue.
It's honorable that you struggle through 2013 Android, but using an internet enabled device that hasn't received security updates in at least 7 years is a horrible idea.
Upgrade to a Fairphone at least, so you can keep replacing parts while also maintaining a base level of security.
He could be using a ROM with up to date security patches, I believe some phones from that era still have active custom ROM communities.
I was considering that, seems unlikely to me, though.
Hell you can run Android 11 on a Galaxy S2.