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.
Still using my OP8T (kebab) from 2020. 6 years strong with LineageOS.
I’ll wait till I leave the USA to swap to a new phone, just one more year…
Had my last smartphone, Honor 20, for 6 years, it didn’t get any safety updates for the last 3… Bought a refurbished iPhone 2 years ago, I will either use that until the safety updates stop or until I ragequit myself out of the modern society. Whichever happens sooner, following the ID laws and all.
But my main phone is a dumb Nokia I found from the trash. I don’t see it breaking and they do sell aftermarket batteries still, so no issues. Can call mom and so on.
I’ve had my current phone for about 5 years and am thinking of getting a new one this fall.
About every 4 years.
About every 5 years. Also weird to hear that about Apple fans. Everyone I know with an iPhone uses it until they can’t anymore or it stops getting updates. Maybe we Europeans use our phones longer or something.
I use them until they’re literally too broken to be worth fighting with anymore. Only then do I buy another one.
only right answer imo /lighthearted
i strategically bought a cheap s20 for ~80$ to wait some time for the market to be better. ~6 months later i bought a waay better phone, for a good price&quality.
the s20 had a huge black spot of broken pixels.
i still use it (its in my packpack RN). decent for extra storage or even LLM(slm). but the screen is flickering so i need to get the screen replaced …etcWhen it dies or becomes obsolete (~5 years)
I think it’s a tech fanboys rather than Apple fanboys that change it every year : one can observe the same modus operandi for Samsung.
Most Apple users will keep their device for a while, just as most android users. Those that change tend to value peer recognition above eveything else and having the latest gadget is a way to achieve that goal.
It keeps surprising me that in the US you are so limited in choice. Most people in this thread only refer to Apple or Samsung because that is the choice they have. I’m in China currently and Apple is not even in the top 5 and Samsung has no presence here at all in the phone market.
But I agree with you. The tech fanboys are the same. Whenever Xiaomi for example, releases a new model, it sells out in one day.
Like the iPhone fold, will barely make a dent here because all other local brands have folds that are much better and are already in their 5th iterations. The Xiaomi 18 fold sold 36. 000 units in its first day.
Currently every 3 years for me. Normally it’s once the new models have enough added hardware features like better cameras, better microphones for video recording etc
It hasn’t been because my phone has been slow for many years because they’re at the point of being powerful even considering years of age.
I’ve only met one person who upgrades each year simply because a new phone is released yet myself and many others have iPhones.
Once every 2 or 3 years back when I was buying the stinky cheap ones. My current Pixel, however, is approaching 5 years strong. No good reason to buy a new one at this point, maybe until the GrapheneOS Motorola comes out since I don’t do anything computationally intensive on my phone.
I buy a new one when my current one is having so many problems it’s hard to ignore. I didn’t get a smartphone till 2020. Before then it was cheap pay-as-you-go phones. That phone was a moto g power and I had it till last year when it was getting to be too slow and the screen shattered when dropping it on my way out of work. I got a pixel 10 since my phone plan gave a massive discount on it.
About 5 years. I don’t care much about the canera. I went from a note 20 Ultra to getting a red magic 11 pro late last year. It has pretty bad cameras but everything else is awesome and the battery will probably be what will eventually make me upgrade again. Just seeing how long it will last and how hard a time it will be to get a hold of a replacement battery. I know how to repair and work on phones and electronics, so doing repairs and getting to the battery isn’t much of a challenge for myself, but getting batteries that aren’t utter trash is a lot harder.
every 5 years, which imo is even too often. the reason is usually a combo of os slowdown/battery life/lack of storage which really is a little ridiculous. f capitalism!
Until it is entirely unusable. My last phone I had for years after it stopped being supported, it would hardly charge, the screen was totally shattered, and I was still using it up until it bricked itself. I’ll probably see if I can convert my current GOS phone into a Linux phone after GOS stops supporting it, for security reasons to use a supported OS, but I want to minimise my contribution to e-waste.
Four years. I’ll typically buy a new phone, but an older model. I’ve still managed to always have a headphone jack!
This is what I do. Last flagship iPhone I bought new when it came out was the 6S and ever since I’ve stuck to doing what you do (no headphone jack though!). I’ve gone from 6S > SE2 > 13 Mini > 17 Base Model
