Over two years ago, my previous S21+ died on me (or at least its screen did), so I ended up getting my current S23+ as a replacement. I had originally purchased that phone in December 2021, but its screen mysteriously went black the following November, and I had to get it fixed while in Singapore. The screen also died in 2023, albeit after I had dropped the phone on its face at least once. I documented in this blog that I vaguely planned to get it repaired to maintain it as a backup phone or as a replacement for Tobie's phone.
Fast forward to 202,5 and Tobie's phone is still crap, and that S21+ has been inactive since May 2023. I never got around to bringing it to an official Samsung service center since that meant needing to go either to Megamall or SM Mall of Asia - places we don't typically go to outside of Tobie's Komiket events. I probably could have brought it any time we were boothing at Megamall...but it never crossed my mind.
But a friend is in need of a temporary phone, and getting my S21+ seemed to be a decent alternative. I had vague memories of having gotten quotes of upwards of 18k for Market! Market! guys to replace the screen and hoped that the price wouldn't be so high now...provided the parts were available. Thankfully, the cost for an "original" (who knows, right?) screen was well under 10k, so even if other things needed fixing, it wasn't so bad an amount to shell out. We left the phone with them on Monday night, and by this afternoon, it was ready to go.
I wasn't sure what to expect from the revived device, but it was funny to see that my security settings were still in place (including my fingerprints!) and all media from that part of 2023. I didn't lose anything when the screen went dead back then - I aggressively rely on Google services to back up all my photos and videos constantly, precisely because I'm always afraid I'll brick my phone and need to jump to a new one. But it was nice to see where things "stopped" since I needed to make sure it could still handle media before I paid the repair guy.
Since then, I've been clearing all of my personal data and getting 2+ years' worth of software updates downloaded and installed. I wasn't expecting it to upgrade all the way to One UI 7 / Android 15, but that's not too bad at all for a nearly 4-year-old phone. The perks of getting flagship phones, I suppose.
So it's ready to be lent to our friend until he can figure out how to get his own phone fixed or replaced. Once that's settled, I'll probably force Tobie to use this phone instead of his current budget phone, which is clearly nearing its end of life.
I'd like to keep a phone in active use for more than 2 years, though, and it's good to know that I'm approaching 3 years with my S23+. Then again, I cannot deny that I'm still terribly clumsy and I've dropped my current phone more than I'd like, but thankfully it's still alive. That just tells you that Ghostek makes some pretty good phone cases, I guess.
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