For what it's worth, I pre-ordered a Samsung Galaxy S2 in 2011, at a time when I decided to join the ranks of the "edgiest" among us (after going through an HTC diamond and a Nokia N900).
Five years later, almost to the day, I'm still sporting my S2; I just haven't had any compelling reason to change it. It does its job now as well as it did back then, and in some cases actually performs better thanks to software updates. The battery outlasts most of my friends' phones even though it was never changed. The phone itself seems to be indestructible: I never protected it (cases, screen protectors, etc.) in 5 years, it has been through just about everything you can imagine and more, yet the only damage is a vague scratch on the screen I can only see in a very awkward angle and a some slightly chipped paint by the ear piece.
I don't know what makes this phone so particular, but for the same reason I wonder more and more what genuinely makes a lot of the new expensive hardware that particular either. In any case, it will be a sad day when I have to part with this phone.
YES, I'm typing this from my uncased, unscreened S2, which has been dropped hard, many times. The thing is indestructible, which is all the more incredible when you consider that it doesn't really look it
Five years later, almost to the day, I'm still sporting my S2; I just haven't had any compelling reason to change it. It does its job now as well as it did back then, and in some cases actually performs better thanks to software updates. The battery outlasts most of my friends' phones even though it was never changed. The phone itself seems to be indestructible: I never protected it (cases, screen protectors, etc.) in 5 years, it has been through just about everything you can imagine and more, yet the only damage is a vague scratch on the screen I can only see in a very awkward angle and a some slightly chipped paint by the ear piece.
I don't know what makes this phone so particular, but for the same reason I wonder more and more what genuinely makes a lot of the new expensive hardware that particular either. In any case, it will be a sad day when I have to part with this phone.