Mauve 👁💜 @mauve@mastodon.mauve.moe

Are we about to see more enshittification with our smartphones?

From right back in the days of Nokia, every 12 months or so, mobile phone makers have tended to upgrade the specs on their phones.

Thanks to Apple, they've learnt how to slowly degrade the performance of their older models. But the tradeoff has been that you get a slightly better camera, or bigger screen, or more battery life.

Android Authority has noticed something curious about the latest phones from a number of major brands, like Motorola and Google.

Their smartphones for 2026 are basically the same specs as the ones from last year, or even slightly worse. In some cases, they have processors from as far back as 2021.

The main thing you get by upgrading is access to new AI features.

There's no reason last year's phones couldn't provide these features. They're powerful enough, have enough memory, etc. The companies are seemingly choosing to not make them available.

In essence, the mobile phone makers are saying that your perfectly capable phone won't get the software upgrades, and to use them, you'll need to buy a new phone with almost identical hardware.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-oBr2yxOAg

The joys of late capitalism, huh?

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