A new smartphone again? Rethink unhealthy culture of frequent upgrades

Consumers however are at the heart of an unhealthy culture of frequent device upgrades

Yes, blame it on the consumer and not on the companies that spend an incredible amount of money to first hire marketeers that think all day long of the best way to push 'new' products, and then run costly campaigns to spread the word.

Reduce. Repair. Recycle.

Most phones, break this at every step.

Ok but first manufacturers must "rethink" planned obsolescence and right to repair

maybe it's my personality or i'm old but i keep my things (including tech) until they become unusable. i've never thought about upgrading my phone every couple of years. i kept my last phone for 6 years (it became a brick), my current phone is from 2018.

Legalize Right To Repair Ban Planned Obsolescence

Boom, solved the problem. But once again it's easier to shame Joe Q. Public than hold the real criminals accountable.

Smartphones have been "good enough" for a while now. Enough power and battery to do all the things needed for enough time before running out of battery.

IMHO there are 2 reasons we still regularly upgrade.

1. "Obsolescence" wether it would be perceived new hardware features or just new software not being available
2. Use/breakage (I include batteries dying in that) with no reasonable way to replace parts

I've had a few phones over the years some of them I "legitimately" just broke (one had a cracked mb after a bike accident) I broke my second to last phone trying to replace the battery (thought I would be able to, broke the screen). The fact that everything is glued down and made to not be replaceable irked me so much that my current phone is a Fairphone. Replacing the battery takes 1 minute and requires no tools. Replacing the screen takes like 5 min and 8 screws. I plan on using this phone for at least 5 years more if possible. But I understand not everybody can shell out 600 dollars for an "OK" phone.

It’s impossible if the vendors stop shipping os updates. I can’t use an out of date phone for my works 2fa push. Kept my phone for 5 years and it was still going, but the planned obsolescence got me.

If only new batteries were easily swappable...

It’s good practice to buy at least one or two new smartphones per year.

The fairphone and terracube are starting to take off. Being able to replace hardware was a staple in early cell phone design and hopefully will come back.

I only upgrade when my phone literally dies or can’t support criticial software and security updates anymore. I upgraded from an iphone 6s to a 12 Pro Max 2 years ago and will probably hold on to this phone until it’s no longer supported.

Sure, let's blame consumer for corporate policies

At work my manager still rocks an old Motorola g5 plus. He says phones have reached peak performance and there's no point of upgrading. Hes a humble, down to earth guy also make $210k/ year.

Phones have to easily repairable before you can blame consumers for upgrading. Cell phones are pretty essential for modern life and most of us don’t want to be without them for long. The upgrade allows for people to not have to worry about what to do when something out of warranty breaks. It is like fixing your car. In warranty, the manufacturer or dealer takes care of things. Out of warranty, you have to find a repair shop. Finding a repair shop is difficult. Trying to get a second or third quote on a broken car is difficult and costly.

The alternative is to make repair shops have transparent prices and make it easy for them to get oem parts. The other option is to force companies to warranty their phones for longer. Until the government does one of those you can’t blame consumers.

gosh, I love my Fairphone.

First and foremost, don't feel pressured to get a new hand tablet with a ten-lense DSLR stapled to the front every single year.

I know Straits only used a picture of an iPhone to get more clicks, but Apple is the least of the offenders when it comes to this. iOS 17 runs on phones released six years ago (including the last iPod touch!), and security updates go a couple years further back than that. I wish Android phones could guarantee that kind of lifespan.

Battery replacement sucks on every smartphone except for obscure modular phones that suddenly lose support or the company goes out of business. But the newest iPhone actually makes it easier to replace the battery (read: still sucks a bit). So, while you have to jump through hoops, you can replace the battery on every smartphone (usually through official channels, but also by other means if needed).

What needs to happen is the masses need to be taught that it's okay to keep your phone for a few years. Phones need to regarded like cars. Drive it until you can't, THEN get a new car. And when you do, consider a newer used car. Once that becomes commonplace, then companies will be forced to tone down their release schedules.

problem is planned obselescence.. dont buy it? fine.. a few more years we will do it for you to by dropping support for the one you are using

Dawg, I only upgrade phones and laptops once every 8 years or so. These things are EXPENSIVE, I can't afford one more often than that.

My current tablet came out in 2014, that's when I got it. It'll be a decade old in just a few months.

Besides swapping the battery out twice over the years, it still works great and does everything I need it to do. Fantastic big AMOLED display, too.

Just don't buy a fucking new phone every couple years

I dunno, my phone's always start to have issues if I keep them too long. Boot loops, frequent crashing, random resets, functionality failing to work as it did when new, lack of security updates, etc. The hardware is built to fail

I keep seeing the complaints, but do enough people actually upgrade yearly? Because anecdotally (including online communities in this) I have seen most people claim that they only upgrade every 3-5 years and I think that's sensible as an upgrade cycle and will only get longer now if my own feelings match the general populace.

I personally have found myself needing an upgrade every 3 years on average and think I'll find a way to go longer with phones which don't lose security updates around the exact time the battery starts swelling on my old phone (my previous reason for upgrading and seems to be happening again)

Have a Note 10+

Screen needs replacing : $450 + tax (cdn) Only one more year of security updates

Bought a "renewed" s23 for $700. I didn't want to but it didn't make sense to sink so much into the old phone even though it worked fine. It pained me to give up the SD card slot...

And here I am with my S4 running lineage Os (android 11)

Phone is on its third battery but doing fine, and does everything I want it to.

I would probably still be using my Pixel 2XL if the battery didn't die. Or a Nexus 6P if that didn't die from the hardware defect they got sued for. Probably even the OnePlus One before that too, but that may be a bit old for daily use

Paid content, really?

Right? My Pixel 4a still works like new but Google's dropping support so I have to get a new one or run a custom ROM. And the new phones don't have headphones jacks!

All that said, I mostly use Bluetooth headphones anyway now, and it's rumored that Google will switch to a 7 year support cycle, so I might just grab a Pixel 8 on Black Friday.

Guilty as charged. I get a new phone about every two years. Do I need a new phone every two years? Absolutely not. All essential features work just fine on older devices. Why do I still do it? Probably because I'm too enthusiastic about new hardware.

I hand down my old devices to family members, and when I hand a device down, the receiver hands their device down to another family member. So the phones I purchase are actively in use for at least six years. 6 years is around the point where Apple drops support for major new iOS updates, and eventually also security updates. Batteries get old and replacement costs tend to get very close to the remaining value of the device itself.

I'm not trying to justify buying a new smartphone for myself every other year, but there's only so much you can do as a consumer. Sure, there are aftermarket ROMs for many Android devices that extend software support, but that's hardly something everyone can install and maintain. You can get replacement batteries from trustworthy brands for fairly little money, but then you either have to replace them yourself (which isn't trivial for many people), or pay someone more money to replace it for you.

In my opinion, only a small (or at least lesser) portion of the blame is on the consumer. The EU and other governing bodies need to step in and require manufacturers to:

• Provide at least 10 years of software updates. This doesn't have to include a ton of new features, but it should include compatibility updates (so newer versions of apps run just fine) and obviously security updates. Some people use devices with hopelessly outdated software and they are fine with it, but I'd say up-to-date software is very important nowadays (look at the recent WebP bug for example).
• Provide replacement parts, especially batteries, for at least 10 years without a profit margin, including a service that replaces these parts - again without profit margin.
• Make batteries user replaceable. The EU is already demanding this, so give it a few years and we'll hopefully get at least that.
• As a bonus, make phones modular and upgradable. Framework shows how it can be done for laptops, I'm sure it's possible to miniaturize this to smartphones, even though this probably has its limitations.

If all this is in place we can start blaming the average consumer.

Still, people like me aren't completely innocent, I'll admit that. I know that I'm just fine using older devices. I used a first generation iPad Pro 12,9" for a long time. I think it had a dual core A9X SoC. I eventually upgraded to an M1 iPad Pro and sure, the old device was way slower (or rather the new device was a lot faster), but I'm not doing anything with the new iPad that the old one couldn't handle somehow.

You could maybe even put a small portion of the blame on developers (or rather, people in charge at software companies). Many apps use frameworks like React Native to port their apps to mobile, and while it's better than Electron, it's still nowhere near as efficient as a true native Swift UI or Android (don't know how their current UI framework is called) app. Huge companies that clearly have the budget to make individual, native apps for each platform rarely do this anymore (Discord, Instagram, ...). Building efficient apps would likely make customers less annoyed that their old phone is "getting slower".

Bold of you to assume I don't lose or break my phone every year or two

5 year old Oneplus 6.

Does everything I want it to. Everything still works. Rooted. No ads. Still runs fast. Never used up 80% of storage.

Only notable issue is my battery. If i'm away from WiFi and I'm using it a lot (listening to YouTube ad free on fire fox) then I'll run outta battery by the end of the day.

Near as I can see cell phones hit a plateau 4 years ago. And unless you have a phone with built in obsoletence - there's no reason to upgrade anymore for the average user.

Yep. When you can’t easily replace a battery it’s a strong (intentional?) disincentive by the manufacturer that pushes people towards buying a new phone. If you need to surrender your phone for a day or three to get the replacement done, people would rather sign a new contract for a phone than be without.

I still use my Galaxy S8. Works just fine, could use a new battery.

Yep. I've had a pixel 6 for the past 2 years. It's still phenomenal. Zero issues with it. I'm keeping it another year.

It's not about more reusable hardware it's about software being constrained to support existing hardware rather than ditch it to save a fee bucks on development.

Does anyone have a full article?

I ain't reading this but I would like to. Anyone got a paywall free version? I tried 12ft.io to no avail.

The default wallpaper looks so much like testicles photographed from below and I can't unsee it

My last phone had a cracked screen, loose USB-c charging port that required me to wiggle the cable to charge it, and a battery that drained the last 20% in about an hour. Finally I upgraded, but I still use that last one, plugged in with the wire taped to the back so it stays there, as my streaming box

I got my phone for free, thankfully, from Visible. They were going to make me upgrade, but I never did and they just decided to send me a new phone instead.

First time I've gotten a new phone for free since I was a kid.

I bought a second hand flagship from 2019 and surprisingly seamless keeping up with the new ones. And always keeping it on an optimized manner. The only apple device i have is ipod touch 6th gen, yes its old but still working serving my music needs. Also bose speakers from 2000s they get dusty pretty easy but still functioning up to this day.

Samsung S21 Ultra that I got in September of 2021

I'll probably go another year before upgrading, depending on how much it makes sense financially.

Jailbroken ios 15 dopamine iPhone 12 user:

“Yeah I’m not upgrading for a long time “

My old iPhone phone gets sent to a developing country to be used by another person.

It’s not going to landfill just yet.

its not some conspiracy. the more complex, durable and water proof a phone is, the harder its going to be to repair or replace a component or battery. the nice thing is that now that the technology is mature and basically good enough to do anything fairly well, people won't need to upgrade for tech or feature reasons anymore. Now it will just be a trade-off between durability and water/dirt resistance, and repairability.

Also, people have no clue how to care for batteries. phones get left in hot cars at 100% charge, left in the sun at the beach at 100%. There is no BMS or hardware battery protection mechanism that can protect against that. Those batteries are fucked and will need to be replaced. And replacement means breaking the water seal around the phone, so it's annoying and expensive. it's just the way it is. you are responsible for your battery, and the better you treat it, the longer it will last.