Consumer Watch: The best value phone is the one in your pocket 

Caitríona Redmond: "Planned obsolescence has long been an issue in the manufacture of mobile phones. Over time, with frequent recharging, apps requiring upgrades, and operating systems becoming outdated, that iPhone you bought five years ago may become an expensive brick in your pocket."

For a long time, when I left the house or went on holiday, I'd carry a backpack containing my laptop. No matter where I was, I needed to be able to access all my apps and passwords and write. 

Only in the past year or so have I stopped doing this because all the information I need is on my phone. It feels liberating to pop the phone into my pocket and close the door behind me.

The first computer, the ENIAC (Electronic numerical integrator and computer), was constructed at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering. It weighed 27 tons, stood 10 feet tall, and took up an entire room. It was, in a word, huge. 

We've come a long way since then, and the mobile phones we carry in our pockets continue to become smaller and possess infinitely more processing power than the first computers.

When the first camera phones were introduced in the early 2000s, they carried very little storage and were designed to share photos instantly and not store them. The quality of the camera was low as it required a high amount of processing power. It's not all that long ago since we squinted at pixelated images and tried to figure out what we could see on a tiny screen.

Most modern camera phones contain a top-of-the-range lens that is a high-definition or 4K resolution image or video and requires an exponential storage levele most recent iPhone camera and try to place it in an iPhone 6, for example.

At the same time, it might work, you may struggle to take one or two photographs.

Planned obsolescence has long been an issue in the manufacture of mobile phones. Over time, with frequent recharging, apps requiring upgrades, and operating systems becoming outdated, that iPhone you bought five years ago may become an expensive brick in your pocket with unusable apps that cannot store high-quality photos and videos. 

You can get around the storage issue by paying a figure starting at €1.99 per month for a larger virtual Google drive and syncing your photo/video storage regularly. This is cheaper than buying a new phone, but that storage will continue to fill up over time, and the images will be stored elsewhere. 

At one point in the future, the amount of digital storage required may result in higher monthly or annual charges or even people being asked to tidy up their virtual albums.

Vodafone's Red Unlimited SIM-only contract, for example, costs €25 per month for six months and €35 per month thereafter. That includes a 12-month agreement, full access to your plan while roaming Europe, and unlimited data along with calls and texts at home and in Europe. 

This is a more expensive contract compared to other bill-pay plans in the market, but it's essential to review the two types of contracts on a like-for-like basis. That's a total cost of €360.00 for 12 months of a mobile phone contract or €720 for two years.

As a rule of thumb, the more modern the mobile phone, the larger the storage capacity required. The iPhone 16 with 128 gigabytes of storage from Vodafone on a Red Unlimited SIM plan costs €65 per month on a 24-month contract, with an upfront (currently discounted) payment of €139.98. 

That's a total cost of €1,699.98 over the course of 24 months. Buying the exact same iPhone directly from Apple will set you back €979; add that to the price of 12 months on the same tariff, and there's virtually no difference in price compared to opting into a contract. Having access to nearly one thousand Euro to buy a new phone is a privileged position to be in, and for some, entering a premium phone contract is a clever way of accessing the newer phone model and paying for it over two years.

On the other hand, once you are locked into a mobile phone contract tied to a new phone, you have to commit to paying the same amount every month. Plus, the phone depreciates over time, and once you reach the end of the two-year period, you may be likely to enter into a new, similar mobile contract to get the next new model on the market, and so the cycle continues.

The new EU Directives on the repair of goods came into force at the end of July last year. In Ireland, we have until July 2026 to transpose these rules to Ireland. Until then, many tech-based manufacturers may be circumventing the requirement to make their products repairable even after the warranty has expired. For consumers, not all phones can be easily repaired, although some manufacturers are taking steps to make it easier to replace built-in batteries, for example. Something that may significantly prolong the life of a mobile phone

Remember, the best value phone is the one that you've got, and that works. If you'd really like to take fancy pictures or videos, it may be cheaper to buy a brand-new digital camera along with a decent-sized storage card and hold on to the phone you already have. After all, phones are for making and receiving calls and texts; everything else is like carrying a mini-computer in your pocket.

Redmond Recommends

I love the feeling of optimism of starting a new book and the feel of the crisp white pages as I fill them with what’s to come over the next 12 months. If you really wanted a new diary, there’s bargains to be picked up in stores nationwide; the opportunity has passed just like most of January, and any annual diaries left are heavily discounted. This year I didn’t buy an annual diary, dated 2025, even though I itched to pick one up.

I haven’t bought a new one at all because I’ve moved from using a book with printed dates and days of the week to a blank template that I pencil the day on. My day book still contains 365 pages but I only use it on weekdays, and I’ve extended its life by at least 100 additional pages. I use my phone calendar to track special dates.