How long do you keep your phone before buying a new one? It is based on this article that especially Apple fanboys, buy a new phone every year when the new one comes out.
Every other day! I just can’t help myself! A new model is released and the hype machine starts up; updates are released to downgrade performance on older models–I just wag my tail non-stop! It’s so exciting! Those flashy lights and colours! Ooooo! This money belongs in their wallets and everyone’s going to get a hold them! And I tell myself pathetic lies: oh, the battery can’t be replaced… if only it had screws… it’s way too hard to heart up glue and put a new battery in. Besides–all my friends are going into debt too! Plus those new features: it can make phone calls and text! Look! E-mail access too!
5 years the last one.
The hardware, including battery, worked great. But it has been lacking updates for some years and I’m worried about vulnerabilities. LineageOS was also not available for this phone.
I bought a phone with 7 years updates and my initial intention is keeping it for 7 years. More if an stable and secure version of LineageOS is available down the line.
Only when the current one dies
Current phone is just shy of 4 years old. I have no intention of changing it. I’ve been looking after the battery, trying to keep it in the 80% to 20% range with the occasional full charge so it’s still going strong.
Last one I got 5 years out of.
4-5 years with a battery replacement at year 2-3 for a refresh. Now I’m trying to hold out for the new Motorola/graphene os phone
Used to buy one every two years or so, either to upgrade or they had failed in some way. Used to spend $1000+ on them too, which is ridiculous looking back with how often they broke.
Had a $2000 phone stop charging and they refused to service it without a huge fee and shipping it oversees. (Asus for anyone wondering. I’ve fully gone off the brand since then. Very overpriced with terrible customer service.)
I was waiting for a call back after a job interview so I went and bought whatever cheap phone I could get and ended up with an oppo. That was in 2019 and it’s still going perfectly fine. Phones haven’t innovated at all since then and with how much they cost I kind of just don’t care to upgrade.
5 years before even thinking if I need to change. Mostly longer than that as long as it holds up well. We’re well past the point of any meaningful upgrades in hardware. A flagship phone should last anyone a really long time.
When the cost of repair, usually the screen, exceeds the used price of the phone. I’m currently on a pixel 6a with a broken screen and it’s at that point now, think it’s been 4 years and 3 screens. On screen broke falling from the sofa on to the carpet, which was annoying as it had no external damage
I will use it until it stops being viable. This used to mean “until the battery dies”, but I’ve also swapped batteries in phones not designed for it, and still had to get a new one as the batteries available weren’t OEM and so bad they basically didn’t work despite being new. Like phone always just turns off at like 40% charge. That isn’t “viable” in my eyes.
Now I’ve got a Fairphone 5. It’s only been a few years, but I’m planning on 10+ years if I can make it happen. In theory some new feature could get me to buy one sooner, but I highly doubt it. Hasn’t happened in the past either.
i swear the apple v android articles are fodder pumped out by media companies because it’s easy ad money.
don’t get me wrong, conspicuous consumption has ruined some people’s ability to own their identity but outside of brand fanaticism surely “normal” customers purchase phones based on when they need it. When do you buy bread? Typically when you want to eat something which has bread.
perhaps not the point of the original question but surely we’re getting beyond the point of being baited by low-quality online content.
4-5 years
My smartphone progression was as follows
- Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini (Don’t remember when I got this one. I wish companies still made phones this small…)
- Huawei P9 Lite (Bought in 2016 I think)
- Xiaomi Mi 9T (Bought in 2019)
- Google Pixel 7 (Bought in 2023)
So far, none of my phones had to be replaced due to hardware failure or damage luckily. The S3 Mini simply got too old. When I upgraded, it could not even play a Youtube video in the app without lagging due to severe RAM limitations. I remember having a screenshot of the RAM usage that said I had less than a MiB of RAM remaining at some point.
My P9 lite was fine. At some point my grandmother decided she wanted a smartphone though and instead of buying a new one for herself she told me to upgrade and give her the old one. When that one got to slow for her, the cycle repeated with me giving her my Xiaomi Mi 9T and upgrading to the Pixel 7 which I use to this day.
Normally I keep a phone until severe hardware failure (spicy pillow, broken digitizer, not charging…)
The only thing that has gotten me to upgrade was the Boox Palma 2 Pro for it’s e-ink display specifically, due to eyestrain from reading on LCD, and my Galaxy A23 5G i received as a gift having its display start falling out (and fear of future storage/ram prices)
(technically almost a phone due SIMs only being supported for mobile data, but i use a flip phone for SIM-based calls/sms anyway)
i haven’t bought a new phone for decade+.
daily driver is a 2013 phone. i do have newer phones i got from family members that stopped using them, but to me they’re less comfortable than my old phone. gonna keep it till it breaks for Y2038 hits
whenever my phone is so broken i cant fix it, i think i have had my current phone for 5 years and i am thinking about getting a pixel with graphene os for security and using my current phone as a mini vm box and practice htb machine
