Consumer Goods

As an avid fanatic of Apple products, a major purchase I made last year was buying the iPhone 12 pro max, which was released at the end of the year. I bought the phone for two reasons, with the first being that it was a gift to myself for having accomplished several life milestones that I had written down a few years back. Secondly, I needed an upgrade as I was using an old version of the iPhone, and I believe that the purchase would perfectly fit me and serve me for a couple of years before I would think of another upgrade. Prior to the purchase, I was using an iPhone 8, and I anticipate the purchase would come with a greater camera display, improved functionality, and I would get the privilege to upgrade my smartphone game and enjoy the privileges that come with it, including the status associated with iPhone users. My post-purchase experience was that while I got to enjoy the improved features available on the phone, the excitement died a few days later. Also the status I hoped to attain by using the phone was diluted by the fact that most of my friends also had a similar model, hence I did not stand out as much as I desired to. In the future, when upgrading my phone, I will first do more concrete research and comparison of alternatives as I noted there were better phones within the same price range such as the Xiaomi Mi 11 ultra, One plus 9 pro, or Samsung S21 ultra 5g and focus more on picking a phone based on its exclusivity and ability to meet my long-term needs, rather than going with the “flow”.