Everyone in this thread seems to assume buying a brand-new item. My preferred route is to buy the high-end of one generation prior, used, from somebody who is upgrading to the latest and greatest. They can pay the early-adopter tax for me.
I mean this has always been the case - you're gonna get more bang for buck if you buy a second-hand last generation high-end product than a new mid range product. What you trade is warranty, support, and the risk of unknown issues due to the previous owner.
I'm happy with that risk so I often buy used electronics, but I can understand why other don't.
Yeah, I think the high resale value only applies to previous-generation machines. Basically, for a couple hundred dollars each year (plus the hassle of using eBay) you can upgrade to a brand-new machine.
Cars? Used, DIY repair for everything except tires, drive them 10-15 years until New England rust kills them.
Computers? Work buys new but I try to skip an upgrade cycle. (I'm on a 2019 MBPro; prior to that was a 2013.) For home, I bought the kids open-box low-end gaming PCs (~$650ea) but for myself am using a perfectly usable Haswell-era Dell I bought on Craigslist for $75 and upgraded with an SSD.
Phones? We buy 1-2 year old iPhones and run them usually through a second battery [DIY replaced]. (Kids and I are on the iPhone X (qty 2) and XS still.)
For me, it's partly about saving money and diverting that money towards retirement, but it's also a matter of "I don't need or want to go through the shopping and upgrade process every 18-24 months; I have better things to do."
If you prefer cheaper computers, buy a used one or two generations back model. Simple as that. Better than buying crap just for the psychological satisfaction of having something "new".
My philosophy isn't to wait for /better/ hardware, so much as to wait for /tested/ hardware. I've been burned often enough buying first-gen technologies.
Second generation usually has the bugs worked out.
Apple has done an impressive enough job with the M1 that if I really needed a new computer right now, I might make exception -- the reviews have been phenomenal -- but barring that, I'd wait for M2.
Perhaps irrelevant to this discussion, but with non-critical things, I also often buy used. It's eco-friendly. I wouldn't buy a used /work/ computer, but for something like school or entertainment, there's a lot of upside to buying used:
* You can find teardowns on iFixit if you need to fix something.
* Someone has figured magical Linux kernel commands to disable NCQ to prevent some oddball crash.
* All the bleeding-edge stuff is supported; drivers are in mainline.
* If there's a keyboard design issue, fan failure, etc. people will have discovered it.
* In a lot of domains, you can also get upgraded/off-lease corporate/industrial equipment, which tends to be cheap and a few quality brackets up. Companies will offload old AV equipment, off-lease laptops, lab equipment (oscilloscopes, etc.), etc. A 5-year-old professional 1080 camcorder will wipe the floor with consumer 4k equipment.
Buying older stuff, you also spend around 1/2 to 1/3, and it's no different from having been born 2-5 years earlier. If you were born in 1990, you'll get the same equipment at the same age as someone far wealthier than you born in 1985.
Except for expiring Android phones and Chromebooks. Google like landfills.
I think the parent commenter's answer was pretty valid. You have to vote with your wallet. Buying used will signal to the market that people don't want the crap that's being produced. Or, especially, given the generous return policies these days, buy new and then don't hesitate to return something if you don't like it.
To add to your torment, sustaining the used market provides additional incentive to those buying new since they know the hardware will preserve its value longer. You'll still be indirectly supporting the company by justifying the value of their products.
Have you never had a laptop stolen or a phone destroyed by water damage or a car totaled in an accident? Sometimes you actually need a replacement, and when you do, you need it now because you depend on it for your livelihood. Buying new is not always the mindless plodding on the capitalist treadmill you make it out to be. There are plenty of people who can and should delay purchases right now, but there will always be those who just can't wait.
I admit that I'm probably kind of a contrarian here. I tend to buy cheap refurbished laptops from NewEgg, something reasonably recent but not utterly leading-edge.
I've told people: My warranty consists of being able to throw it away and buy another one with the money I've saved over the years from following this strategy.
I'm also fortunate that for me, a lot of "development" time is spent sitting and scratching my head, so my laptop doesn't really need awesome computing power. My computer is more or less a half-smart terminal. That's just related to the kind of work I do of course.
These days, same strategy for desktops and cellphones.
An amusing story: I was checking out of Best Buy one time, and the cashier offered me an extended warranty. I told her: "I have a plan through my bank that covers everything I own." Of course she took the bait and asked me what the plan consisted of, and I told her: "The contents of my bank account." Fortunately she had a sense of humor about it.
The last "new" computer I bought was a laptop in 2011. A 13-inch Macbook Pro with a 2nd gen i7. After that, I've always bought used, as the place where I'm in right now, the people prefer the newest shit, so I happily buy their used laptops for cheaps. Mind you, these are T480 Thinkpads that people are selling for very cheap in order to buy the latest.
These aren't realistic choices unless you are buying a used PC. But even less savy consumers understand generations, if you present a fast 1st gen model versus a not the fastest 11th gen model I think the majority will go with the newer model.
The overlap probably isn't big, but it depends on the type of device. For instance, I've bought plenty of used computer hardware from a certain local vendor selling off-lease equipment. So at the cost of accepting that the device was used for a year or two in some company and may have a scratch here and there, I could score a decent display or a laptop at 1/3 of the price of a new model. If I can't find what I want this way, I usually do pony up and buy new.
Delay or upgrade by purchasing used hardware. I often buy my gear 3-4 years old from Ebay, it lets me upgrade without the sticker shock. This assumes you don't need the latest and greatest. I do this with laptops and server gear.
This is similar to purchasing used cars, you can steadily upgrade with much less capital and therefore each purchase holds much less risk. Also it's much better for the environment.
I was going to say the same - you are often better off buying a quality not-too-old used than buying a crappy new low-end machine. Better for the world too. However I tend to keep my gears for a very long time (hello my well-loved 2007 MacBook Pro) so I can justify buying new (w/warranty).
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