I recently saw a comment saying “Every 2-3 years is good to replace your phone” and that’s what brought up this question. I’m the type to use my phone as long as it fits my needs, so I typically keep my phone until it breaks.
So, how often are you all switching out your phones? What’s your ideal time period to keep it for?
42 comments
Roughly every 5 years. Usually that is around the time the battery goes to shit.
I do about every 3 years, but it’s a company phone. If I had to pay for it, it would be much longer.
Never.
I go to Amazon, set a price limit of $200, and buy a Droid that looks okay. I repeat this every few years when my phone breaks.
I can’t imagine spending more than a couple hundred for a device that is in the verge of obcelenscence while it is still on the assembly line.
Usually it’s based off of my family internet plan. Now a days the difference between models is negligible so you can get away with not needs a new one for years
Usually I’ll upgrade when I’m done paying it off (used to be 2 years, now it’s 3 years) through my carrier. I go for last years model (just got the iPhone 14) when I upgrade for the discount price.
Usually every 3 or so years. I have an iPhone 13 pro max right now and maybe I’ll upgrade when the iPhone 16 comes out. I started out with an iphone 4, then 7, 11, now 13.
Every 2 years pretty much
I’ve kind of been on a 2 year cycle. Had to buya phone in early 2021 as my carrier banned my old phone model. Battery on that eventually went to shit by late 2022 so that one had a short life as well.
Every two to two and a half years. For iPhones, carriers will run buyback promotions to trade in your phone. Resale value on stuff like that tends to be pretty high and starts tailing off after 2-3 years. So it’s worth it to me to re-sell my phone back and get a brand new one where the resale value of the old phone actually covers a good bit of the new phone cost.
Annually. But I’m on a plan where I don’t really own it and just trade it in and pay off monthly.
Usually about 4-5 years
I use them as long as I can but that’s turned into every 2-3 years the last several phones. They stopped charging, or the screen went black, or the signal was bad because we’re in a rural area and the signal changed.
Every 3 years for my phone and my wife’s. I don’t do a trade-in though. One of my children gets our old phone. By the time they are done with the phone it’s too old and beat to hell to be traded for anything.
I get a new phone when my phone becomes unserviceable. That usually happens when the battery goes to shit or I beat it up too much. Average seems to be every 3 years or so.
Until the battery starts to fall off a cliff, usually 3ish years
I got 5 years out of my last phone, and I’m over 4 with this one. I’ll prob lay replace it soon though.
Mine typically make it 3-4 years before I manage to break the screen or charge port or the battery life starts to notably degrade.
Every 5-6 years, and then I buy a model or two behind. My Google Pixel 5 is working just fine right now.
If my phone stops working or I want a new feature. Basically until it breaks, stops working, or I want something it doesn’t do.
Edit: I legit only moved from an iPhone 6 to an iPhone 12 because I wanted an app. I moved from a Windows Phone (which was great) to iPhone for work.
I keep it until it breaks
I’m in the same boat, as long as it lasts. I’m still using an iPhone 8 and get clowned all the time for it. However people that buy the new iPhone every year are the clowns to me. 🤷♂️
I try not to until I have to. My last phone (which I’d had for 3 years) got really slow, was having trouble staying connected to Wi-Fi networks that other devices had no issues with and my battery said “Service”, things like that. Before that, my last phone (which I’d had for 4 years) kept overheating. I thought it was going to burst into flames when I was transferring my stuff.
I’m not someone who likes getting “the newest model.” I hate that most iPhones no longer have a home button, so I’ve tried to stick with the models that do and hang onto my phones until they don’t work for me.
Every other year for me. Maybe I’m rough with phones but by the end of year 2 I’ll often have a broken charging port and poor battery life. Ideally it would last another 1-2 years so that upgrades would feel like upgrades.
I just replaced my 2016 iPhone SE a few months ago- it’s safe to say I run my phones into the ground before replacing.
It still worked, but the battery was just shot and I was tired of always needing to carry a charger.
When it breaks or the battery life gets below about 75% of original
I buy a new phone when the current one starts to have continuous issues, like overheating, battery not holding a charge long enough, continually shutting down, etc. That’s typically every five years.
When it breaks. I finally upgraded to a smart phone in, I think, early 2017. I am on my second phone now so I don’t have enough data to say how often I get a new one. My first lasted until late 2020, so a bit more than 3 years. It’ll be 3 years that I had this one come November of this year so we’ll see how much longer it lasts.
As late as possible. I’m currently still using a Red Hydrogen One from 2019, only might ditch it soon because it doesn’t get security updates anymore so my banking apps aren’t compatible.
Yep, I usually upgrade to a new phone after about 3 years. If a phone breaks earlier, or there is a great offer or trade-in deal, then I have upgraded sooner. On the other hand, if the phone has been performing well without as many issues, then I have generally used it for longer.
I usually start shopping for a new phone when my current model stops getting security updates, as I use banking and work communications apps. By that point, the phone’s hasn’t been eligible for an OS update for about a year, and apps are starting to glitch.
With my last two Google phones, that happened after 3–3.5 years. I switched back to Apple last year because I’ve always gotten at least 5 years on Apple mobile devices. It looks like Google’s extended their update period to 5 years for the newest Pixel models, which is great news—those are good phones, and I was equally happy with Google OS and iOS.
Back when major strides were being made between versions, it was every two years. These days, it’s typically every three because that’s when the battery starts to die.
I recently bought a new phone. My last one was 6-7 years old. In general, I keep them for a long time.
Once my phone is on the brink of death. Which has been about 4 years in the past. My current phone is about 3 and still running great so I anticipate it lasting more than 4, but we’ll see.
I still have my iPhone X. I’ll keep it until it doesn’t work anymore. Before that, I had an iPhone 7, which I’d also kept for years.
I’m OK with every 4 years. I’m currently using an iPhone SE 2020, and it’s still working great. But I’m on the older side, and I’d like something a little bit larger. Will probably upgrade to the base iPhone 14 next year.
Once every 5 years on average. Around year 3, I get the the battery replaced, which greatly extends the life of the phone.
When I used to get the cheapest phone on my upgrade plan, every year or two. But I’ve gone the last nearly 8 years on two iPhones and I only switched because my phone was stolen.
Contemplating switching again, but I’m probably going to a cheap Android next
iPhone is every 2 years. IPad 6 years
I replace my phone when I crack the center of the screen or drop it the toilet enough times that it dies🤷♀️ in my youthful past that could be quite often, more recently they last longer. I always get second hand androids from eBay, so my phones are usually about $100.
I don’t understand why people upgrade so much. I usually buy my phones outright to dissuade me from upgrading. Other people seem to be okay always being on a payment plan.
I don’t replace my phone until it’s unusable. My last one lasted 5 years. I’ve had my current one for 2 years now and it’s still working perfectly fine.
I get a new phone every year. Yeah, it’s kind of a waste of money but for something I use every day for multiple hours per day, the cost per use is quite low.
What I do is sell the phone and get let’s say $600, then I buy the new model for $1100. So it costs me $500/yr to have a new phone or around $41 per month. That’s less than the cell phone bill itself.