Why do “flagship” smartphone chips go out of fashion after just a year?

Submitted ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨sbeak@sopuli.xyz⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

Every year, tech reviewers position the latest chip as much better than the old one, and the same thing happens next year, and the next. The Snapdragon 8 Elite was better than the Gen 3, which was better than the Gen 2, and so on.

If the “flagship” chips are so good, why not just stop to save cost? Why upgrade the chipset every year with minimal gains?

If everyone stuck with the same generation of chip, smartphones could be cheaper (good for consumers) OR profit margins could be increased (good for companies). Or maybe a mix of both.

What drives the yearly update in chips? AI maybe?

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Comments

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AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml ⁨44⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
Basically when I look for new hardware, I always look at specs. And it’s so easy to get sucked in by “oh this is a little bit more expensive but has 20% more performance!”.

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Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Because the development of new Smartphone SOC has been very strong, and the new ones really are better in multiple ways. The gains are far from minimal.
Also you can get usable smartphones dirt cheap now, that are both way better and way cheaper than just a few years ago.
The reason they all make better phones is due to this thing we call competition. If all brands except one stopped making better phones, the one that continues will take marketshare from everybody else, and have by far the best profits, because the highest profits are with the high end phones.

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- lurch@sh.itjust.works ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I disagree. New smartphones may have a few bettee specs, but are overall worse than older models.
  
  For example, they are getting bigger and bigger and can’t be operated one handed any more, even with Androids one-handed mode, because the zoom makes everything tiny.
  
  Newer phones become hotter, batteries more likely to turn into spicy pillows.
  
  More bloatware preinstalled, like AI stuff or “AR Emoji” etc.
  
  The camera notches are growing too, even though most people would be fine with notchless cameras.
  
  They are getting heavier and thicker too. In 2015 we had 5.1mm 98g phones. Not even a notch. It all went downhill from there.
  
  And don’t even get me started on the prices.
  
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  - Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    Well it’s not ALL progress, personally I’d like the notification LED and the mini jack back.
    But overall, I think modern smartphones are amazing.
    
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- WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  its like you are responding to a different question. you are speaking about cheap phones, while the question was about recent years flagship phones chipsets.
  
  what is that so large difference between this years flagship chip, and yesteryears flagship chip? and the difference between yezteryears and the one before that?
  is it really a large difference, like reviewers tell? it feels like comparing intel 12th gen and 13th gen CPUs and telling there is a large difference, the newer ones are so much better you need to get them IMMEDIATELY.
  
  again, the question is not about developments over a decade. bluetooth and gyroscope has been common for a decade now even in cheap phones.
  
  and I find it amazing how hard they are locking down our phones, like as if it was still owned by the manufacturer, rented by the user. google is doing the most of the work to enable countries to forcibly lock in citizens to malware infested systems of the factory. it couldn’t have happened without something like play “protect”
  
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  - Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
    OP wanted cheaper phones, but phones ARE getting cheaper with better features too.
    
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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Yeah, budget phones have gotten really good. That makes sense, the companies have a financial incentive to make the better phone than everyone else.
  
  Kind of crazy that we mere humans have developed these super-advanced silicon wafers that can do millions of operations every second and we develop new, better ones every year.
  
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J_on_LemmyML@lemmy.ml ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Money

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SuperSpruce@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Most OEMs like to say that they have the very best. And unfortunately, software just keeps bloating, making it more useful to have a higher end chip.

However, this dynamic has changed somewhat in recent years as the price of flagship SoCs has skyrocketed by ~4x in 5 years. More high-end phones are releasing with not quite the best chip, like the base iPhone, the Pixel, and the Galaxy S25/S25+ (due to Exynos).

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Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
We’re sheep baaa baaaa

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Taalnazi@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Planned obsolescence, perhaps?

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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  I find it weird that tech reviewers are hyping up 7 years of OS support by Samsung and Google (which is very good!) while simultaneously promoting upgrading to the newest phone every year (which, in my opinion, is quite wasteful)
  
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- Buffalox@lemmy.world ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  That would be things like not being able to replace the battery.
  Fortunately EU is regulating that shit now.
  
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HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Because you need a justification for the higher price. Without the update cycle, flagship phones would likely need to be cheaper to sell.

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jakeuphigh@lemmy.today ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Companies like to make money. Cell phone makers do it by selling phones. By always having something newer and better they create more demand than if they only sell the same old thing, even if it was good enough. This way, they encourage people to buy phones before their old one is broken or out of service simply because they believe they are getting something better. If they just let people believe last year’s model is still good enough, fewer people will decide they need to upgrade and they won’t sell as many.

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2xspicy@sopuli.xyz ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
It’s about business, more specifically, the perception of innovation, which is a form of marketing. A yearly chip refresh allows companies to signal progress, even if the performance gains are marginal. Brands like Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, and OnePlus compete on specs, and having “the latest chip” remains a key marketing checkbox.

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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  That makes sense, humans love grabbing the next new thing.
  
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Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org ⁨7⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
There was a time when I tried cheap China phones, the newest and best, but from the cheap class. Some where good, some were a desaster.

Now I usually buy phones that have been in fashion 2-4 years before. All good.

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- sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Budget phones by Chinese companies are really good now, esp. with things like SiC batteries. Very cheap phones now have nice 120hz screens, decent processors for everyday use, very good battery life, nice build quality, and even okayish cameras. It’s really only the software that’s a bit bloated, but it’s (usually) removable (and you could always install a custom ROM)
  
  Budgets phones from non-Chinese companies like Samsung and now Nothing/CMF are quite good too.
  
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  - WhyJiffie@sh.itjust.works ⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
    
    the software that’s a bit bloated, but it’s (usually) removable (and you could always install a custom ROM)
    
    except if your government and all available banks practically restrict you from replacing the ROM, because then their apps refuse to work. you often can’t replace gov apps with the web browser because of the closed authentication system, and bank apps either because they routinely block mobile browsers, while the desktop view is unusable for most people
    
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