A new survey reveals users are waiting longer to upgrade. Over 49% of readers now wait three years for a new smartphone.
A modern cell phone at this point has no reason not to work for decades.
It doesn’t because you run out of security updates after 5 to 6 years. Which I hate. But nowadays switching to android alternatives is an option once a phone is no longer supported.
Or Apple which is surprisingly good in that department, my sister’s iphone 11 is still receiving updates.
It didn’t have to be this way. I can run modern Linux on 20+ year old PCs.
Enshittification, they code poorly on purpose so people need to upgrade their hardware for ever increasingly bloated software. Linux doesn’t play those games.
Proprietary drivers and the lack of a hardware abstraction layer seem to be the main problems. The big, popular desktop environments on Linux have also grown pretty heavy, but there are plenty of alternatives.
If you actually tried to do anything useful on a 2004 machine, you wouldn’t post that.
A reasonable desktop from that era should be about comparable to a Raspberry Pi 4, which can certainly be useful. Power consumption is probably the main argument against it.
It really depends on what you want to do. Word processing it can handle, scientific analysis it’ll be slow at, 3d modelling it’ll end up in power point mode quicker than newer machines. Coding would be fine, though compiling would take longer and testing may or may not be viable.
I would install Lineage on day 1
My last phone upgrade was in part because my previous phone didn’t have NFC, which is a significant technology nowadays. I wonder what’s going to motivate my next one, if it’s gonna be general performance, software support, or some hardware feature (like wifi… was it 7? That allocates a separate band for each device, so it doesn’t shit itself when you use more than 1 device in a large area).
Decades is a stretch
However it should work for 4-7 years
They need to have a working spare parts program first. If your phone is busted you should have an option other than “overpay and wait a week for it to be shipped to the repair factory where it might be data wiped” or “hope the repair shop guy isn’t lying about original parts and is competent enough to install them/know if they are original”
I got the S24+, and my wife got the S25+, and I swear they are the exact same phone.
The changes we are seeing year over year are minute and iterative - gone are the days of anything “revolutionary” driving you to get the latest model every year.
I literally have a laptop in my pocket, and until we can make huge leaps in battery technology (i.e. good, fast, and cheap), I don’t think we’ll be seeing a need to update our phones for 2-5 years easy.
They can always release updates to make the apps you use obsolete forcing hardware upgrade quoting security reasons
Not when you don’t use Google Play services, they can’t.
The bitter truth about electronics:
I think things are reaching a plateau for technical and economic reasons.
The last time I got a new phone, they took away the 3.5mm jack. Now it’s hard to play music without Bluetooth speakers.
I only got a new phone because the battery failed and they no longer offered the old model. New models are taking away features I want to add bullshit I don’t.
I’ve always pushed my devices to the point of them becoming so slow an broken that they’re basically unusable. My current one is from 2022 and I consider it practically new. Haven’t even needed to replace the battery yet which is removable as were the ones on my previous devices as well. Modern phones are so uninteresting anyway that I don’t really even have a desire to upgrade. I’d just be losing features - not gaining new ones.
I’m part of the proud “when your current phone breaks” 30%: my current phone is 4~5 years old, and I’m really not planning to replace it.
Only really use my phone to call family on Christmas and to receive SMS verification codes. Got a brick phone currently but thinking when I replace it I might go for a cheap second hand Android as it’s cheaper than a new nokia.
Could stick comaps on it and a few other APKs then never connect it to the internet again. Also CEX kinda give a better guarantee on second hand goods than most manufacturers do on new, pretty sure its only in store credit but it’s 5 years, just get another phone in a similar price range. Plus the store credit lasts forever. As you get it in a voucher, your replacement phones 5 years would start from when you buy it.
Yep, me too, but my Sony xperia 5ii has a few issues like no fingerprint reader and a battery that only lasts 3/4 of a day with light use, plus no updates for the past 3 years…
Might have to go fairphone soon
Dont love that they lumped basically everything over 3 together. Its likely in large part because a lot of phone contracts have you paying off your phone in 3 years so that’s when the carrier starts bombarding you with deals for trading in your phone.
Australia has a rule that phones have to have a warranty for at least as long as the contract period. So most of ours are paid off in 2 years, and that’s when the carriers start advertising at you heavily
Three years… amateurs. If my Note10+ still had software support I probably could go another couple of years.
…And given they’ve taken some features away on the S25 Ultra and S26 Ultra, I’m not actually sure I want to pay such a premium price to stay with Samsung (as much as I do like this device).
Indeed. My Sony Xperia 5 II is 5 years old, still works fine and has the latest updates thanks to LineageOS. And completely devoid of any Google apps.
The battery life is pretty terrible though, I should replace it.
I have a five year old Pixel 4A running LineageOS. I limit battery charge with AccA to ensure it doesn’t wear out.
The phone reports its battery capacity at 93%. I have no plans to replace it unless I break it,
Haha, basically the same. I actually bought another 4a 5G a year or two ago to replace my old one that died because I want to run GrapheneOS and it was the last model with a headphone jack.
I really feel the pressure to upgrade from my S9 but, with ability to install a decent OS on it, I have a choice between a Motorola with the same specs as my current phone, so not much of an upgrade, or a Pixel/Fairphone without 3.5mm or even SD slot.
Yeah, having an audio jack and filled SD slot really discourages “upgrading”.
Fyi: The Fairphone has an SD-slot. No 3.5mm though
No 3.5mm though
They really shot themselves in the foot with this one. The kind of people on the market for a device like Fairphone tend to appreciate features like this. There’s no downside to including a headphone jack even if you don’t need it.
I was a batch 2 owner of the FairPhone 1, the FairPhone 2, the FairPhone 3+ . . . and just a month ago upgraded to the new FairPhone 6. And a guy who absolutely loathes Bluetooth earbuds. Yet I don’t miss the 3.5mm jack for a simple reason . . . wired USB-C earbuds are a thing. I picked up a cheap set from JBL and never thought about the 3.5mm jack again.
Yes, I agree . . . they could have/should have stuck with it. But honestly . . it’s no huge loss.
Flying international from Australia I really miss headphone ports. The USB port is needed to keep the phone charged, since even the biggest batteries only give you about 4 hours of YouTube. My Bluetooth headphones last about 16hrs, so that’s almost enough. I usually carry alternative Bluetooth earbuds that last several hours to cover such gaps
I know, still a downgrade though.
I just upgraded my phone from my previous 2019 device
I didn’t even bother with new. I just bought a used high end phone.
My phone is close to 5 years old. I’m honestly quite happy with it still.
Bought realme 8 4G 8gb ram 128 gb storage phone in 15k inr in 2021 (167 dollars) using it still… Thinking of upgrading before 2026 bcuz phone prices will surge after 2026 bcuz of ram and all…
