Asking because… On one hand I do see smartphones being released left-and-right, and they are rather integral to modern life
On the other hand I’m still chugging alone with my Pixel 6a that I bought 3 years ago with a replaced battery and a somewhat clogged charging port… and all my previous phones I only replaced when they have serious deficits that make them difficult to use
Wondering when you all replace phones. Please definitely mention it too if you ended up repurposing the old phone for something else
Whenever the old one dies or becomes unusable. A new phone doesn’t really offer much new, so I see no reason to upgrade just for the sake of upgrading
If it aint broke, don’t fix it. That’s my general idea anyway. The other thing to consider is security upgrades (end of life). Then again, this time around I may just install a de-googled OS instead of buying again.
I use my phone until it is completely inoperable so a few years.
I once used a phone where half the screen was broken but the touch sensors still worked and I’d memorized where all the buttons were so I could still receive and send calls and texts.
People that replace electronic devices that still work confuse and annoy me.
I won’t replace it unless it’s needed. And that includes data security reasons. If my phone stops receiving security updates, I buy a new one. Trying to sort out identity theft is not worth being cheap over.
I’ve always thought it’s a little crazy to buy a new phone on a schedule. Like some people do every year or two. That’s expensive and terrible for the environment.
About every 5 years, usually when either the phone breaks, or key software no longer supported.
I have averaged about every 5-6 years
Generally I wait until it dies. My current one is testing my patience at 3 years old while I’ve disliked it since the start, but the cost of a new one is sobering enough to let me suck it up.
My first phone died under a bus after 4 years, my second one stopped getting security updates after 2 or 3 years and was starting to get seriously slow, so that one I sold, my third one took 5 years to die to repeated water exposure… And this is my fifth one.
When I can’t use the old one anymore. Every time so far, that’s been because of a hardware failure.
I’m currently on a Pixel 4A. It’s running Android 16 (LineageOS), and I limit battery charge with AccA so that it doesn’t wear out. It’s currently showing 92% capacity, which seems pretty good for five years. I don’t think I’d actually like a new phone; it would be faster and have a better camera, but my current phone isn’t a bottleneck, and a new phone’s camera will still be worse than my Olympus. It would have 5G, but why should I care? Most new phones are bigger, and as an adult, my hands are not growing.
I love that answers like this are popular here. There was a time when phone tech was improving fast enough that frequent upgrades made a lot of sense, but now is not that time.
4A club member! I love the hell out of this phone but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking for a good upgrade option. I’ve got burned in notification and tray icons and this guy has been in the drink a couple times. The 9A looks okay but I really hate all the AI integration phones have now.
When it is no longer able to do things I actually need it to do, and fixing is difficult/expensive.
So far that’s about 5 years per phone for me.
In August it will be 15 years since I purchased the phone I’m typing this reply on, Samsung Galaxy S2. All I do is calling, basic browsing, and checking the weather, so I don’t really feel like I need a new phone. Battery is replacable, so until the screen is broken, this phone will serve its purpose.
Is that with LineageOS?
I’m still running Jelly Bean. I know that I could get a more modern OS with Lineage OS, but for my very limited purposes the old Android is good enough.
How does even a single Lemmy client work on that?
Web browser. I only have two other social media accounts, on Reddit and LinkedIn, and I use a browser for these as well. Even if a dedicated app worked in my OS, my phone doesn’t have enough memory to install it.
Which browser are you using?
Brave. Not sure about the version number, but it’s been working fine.
Because I use my phone for banking I am stuck with OEM android. I have an S21 that loses support soon, that pushes me to upgrade when the next version comes out but will also be jumping to the S26 Ultra. The S26 series gets updates for 7 years so after that I will look at upgrading again.
Hardware changes are no longer huge leaps like they used to be. With devices no longer being functionally obsolete every few years squeezing as much life as possible is the new game.
My old devices end up being used for dashboards for HomeAssistant or turned into picture frames. So they will live on and still be useful for a long time.
I use my phones until they’re limping and pleading me to just let them die. At that point I look on the used market and buy the best previous-gen phone I can find for the cheapest price, then repeat. I’m not a fan of cell contracts - I like to buy my phone outright to keep my monthly bill as low as possible.
Up until now I was only buying used Pixels so I could install Graphene, but if Goog ever locks the bootloader or anything like that I will move to something else supported by Graphene.
Or maybe just revert to dumbphone and start carrying a small ultralight laptop around for internet stuff. Probably less doomscrolling that way.
I was just thinking the same. Simple oldstyle flip phone and a tablet or tiny laptop.
My wife has had her Samsung Note10+ for 8 years, battery just hit the wall where its charge drops too rapidly to be a reliable phone.
I use my 2018 Samsung S9+. Still has the original battery and screen
Same here! All original S9+, and I still get over a day’s worth of battery time.
Nice! I messed up my battery by keeping it charging at 100% all the time to stream shows all day for like 4 yrs, when I should have been keeping it between 20% and 80%. It still lasts about 12 hrs tho, which is good enough for me rn. If it gets worse I’ll get a new battery tho rather than getting a new phone with a face and fingerprint scanner and AI. That stuff makes me feel ick. I think we made a good investment with the S9+, I remember doing a lot of phone research before I picked it out
Only when it’s unusable. I recently got a new phone, my old one was an iPhone XR but the last few months it just randomly restarts and overheats like crazy.
I did a battery replacement a year ago but I think it was time. I also got a cheap Samsung, I’m not about to pay the money that Apple is charging customers just so I can make phone calls and use maps
Only when it no longer works. I would have kept my last phone much longer, but the basic function of connecting to cell/mobile towers stopped. Still works as a wifi-only device.
