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I finally did it! I bought a new phone

Ok ok this happened two months ago now! 

Having moved out of Canada three years ago, the decision to purchase a new phone is complicated.  First, in most places, you first buy the phone outright.  No "subsidy" of a new phone (with higher rates for telephone plans).  So you got to fork out the cash outright.  Moreover, the local price is "nose-bleed level".  As an example an iPhone X that retails for US$ 999 sells for MXN 26,000 -- that's US$ 300 more (or 30%) than what you would pay at a US Apple store. 

So there's incentive to do things differently...at these prices and margins

First off, I asked my tech-savvy younger friends what I should buy:  Needless to say that none use the iPhone, I've seen the Android universe -- cannot say that I am impressed!  They are like Windows computer, needlessly complicated.

Some of the stuff no longer matters -- I just don't have my music library on my phone.  I use Spotify...less space and works just as well for me in the car.

But which iPhone to pick?  Now, at the end of the day, the issue is speed, screen, memory, and camera.  Speed is stupid, my previous (dying) iPhone worked as fast as I could possibly need.  usually, the hangup was download speed that has nothing to do with the phone and everything with the network.  So speed is not an issue.  The screen was just fine (on my old phone).  So speed and resolution were off the table.  image quality was also off the table.  I just don't take that many pictures.  I would like to take more, but I usually "forget" my phone -- so not too many pics, the quality of the image is really...not that important (especially when four years ago the standard was deemed as "perfect" by the pros).

So what's left; convenience and price;  I was sure that I didn't want to purchase an Android phone.  I have looked at several and was not impressed with the user interface...

So it was going to be an Apple product:  a 5,6,6S,7,8 or X. 

The 5 and the X were out of the window outright.  The 5c is about to die because of its very old chip -- and soon will not be supported by Apple (the 6 introduced a new chip).  The X honestly once it's in a case looks just like a 7 or an 8 -- aside from the top bevel, but I don't care! I like that the 7 and 8 are waterproof, but I've never had a phone water damaged in my life, and their specs are almost identical to that of the 6S -- I could not justify the substantially higher price.  So I purchased a 6S, but get this, I got a further amazing deal.  I purchase an Apple refurbished iPhone 6S, with a full warranty at slightly more than 1/2 the price of a new iPhone 6S. 

So there you go, I replace my old iPhone 6 for an iPhone 6S, without cutting corners.  I bought a (slightly) better phone that I previously had bought for somewhere like 45% less than what I had paid 4 years ago.  Now that's how tech deflation should work!







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