How often do you buy a new phone?

About every 4-5 years, depending on how the old one is lasting. Typically, it’s battery life that frustrates me enough to go shopping. I have an iPhone 17 now, and this will most likely be my last apple. Prices are beyond justification

I use a phone till it stops working. Usually get 3-4 years out of it. I usually will buy a refurbished "flagship" phone from the previous year or two. I like a big screen and lots of memory. I'm currently using a pixel 9pro xl. It's fine. I like the idea of using graphene, but haven't yet summoned the energy to do it.

I don't understand why people would upgrade their phone every year. It's so wasteful, and there's barely any changes from year to year. Most of the larger upgrades these days are in software rather than hardware.

I currently have a refurbished Pixel 8 (chosen because it's the oldest phone recommended by GrapheneOS). I got it less than a year ago when my previous phone (a refurbished Pixel 7) started having screen problems. I got that one a few years before, when my refurbished Pixel 6 fell out of my pocket in a parking lot and got driven over by a car.

If it weren't for breakages and Graphene system requirements (for security features, not performance), I'd probably still be using the Pixel 6, if not some phone I had even before that. It's been at least half a decade or so since the last time I felt like upgrading because my phone wasn't good enough.

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 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.

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 think I have you all beat. I'm still rocking an iPhone 6S Plus released in 2015. The latest update was for iOS 15.8.8 on May 11, 2026.

At least 4 years. The only exception will be when the Motorola+GrapheneOS phone launches next year, which will be replacing the phone I bought this year

When my old one dies. Currently only on my 2nd smartphone.

Four years. I'll typically buy a new phone, but an older model. I've still managed to always have a headphone jack!

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.

My good friend gets a new phone as part of their plan every 4 years, so they give me their old phone and I give my old phone to my partner. Haven't bought a phone in over 12 years, but I guess you could say I change phones every 4 years.

5 years for the last one, hopefully much longer with this one.

Last one was an iPhone 13, but the battery was shot. I wanted to get out of bit techs grasp, so I gave that phone away and bought a Fairphone 6 and put e/os on it.

I use them until they're literally too broken to be worth fighting with anymore. Only then do I buy another one.

4-5 years with a battery replacement at year 2-3 for a refresh. Now I'm trying to hold out for the new Motorola/graphene os phone

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.

4-5 years

Until the security updates stop coming out from the manufacturer

I’ve had my iPhone 11 for 7 years. I have no strong desire for a new one either. I just need to replace the battery on this one and it should be good a for a few more years.

I stopped buying new phones when I started running GrapheneOS on my phone. I bought a used pixel 8 thinking it would be supported by Google for 8 years. Needless to say I greatly underestimated Google doing evil things and not being absolute obstinate weasels on abiding by the GPL. Currently looking for options on running a cheap Linux phone to weigh what to swap to in the future.

Every 5 years. For next year, I want to buy a custom Android (GrapheneOS - Motorola, or Degogled Android/Ubuntu Touch - Volla, or Fairphone with /e/ os), I will see.

As long as possible.

Either it dies, or the battery does and there's no longer replacements available; or, the manufacturer stops updating it and a there's no support for a third party OS.

New phone? I only ever buy used.

I kept my last phone maybe 5 years. I replaced it because my bank's app no longer supported the old Android version and the mfg no longer provided updates.

I replaced it with a !LineageOS@lemmy.ml device because I decided not getting updates was a deal breaker.

About 5 years unless i lose it in the ocean. Which has happened twice in the last decade

1. When I have to or 2) when I want to, whichever comes first.

Longtime Apple fanboy here, I bought an SE in 2014, upgraded to the XS in 2018, and the 16 pro in 2024, so once every ~5 years or so. Couldn’t imagine buying a new phone more frequently than that.

at the moment i use iphones have for several years. I buy a new phone when the old one isn't supported or when it is going so slow that it's borderline painful to use it. it ususally is no longer supported by that time .

Used to buy one every two years or so, either to upgrade or they had failed in some way. Used to spend $1000+ on them too, which is ridiculous looking back with how often they broke.

Had a $2000 phone stop charging and they refused to service it without a huge fee and shipping it oversees. (Asus for anyone wondering. I've fully gone off the brand since then. Very overpriced with terrible customer service.)

I was waiting for a call back after a job interview so I went and bought whatever cheap phone I could get and ended up with an oppo. That was in 2019 and it's still going perfectly fine. Phones haven't innovated at all since then and with how much they cost I kind of just don't care to upgrade.

Every other day! I just can't help myself! A new model is released and the hype machine starts up; updates are released to downgrade performance on older models--I just wag my tail non-stop! It's so exciting! Those flashy lights and colours! Ooooo! This money belongs in their wallets and everyone's going to get a hold them! And I tell myself pathetic lies: oh, the battery can't be replaced... if only it had screws... it's way too hard to heart up glue and put a new battery in. Besides--all my friends are going into debt too! Plus those new features: it can make phone calls and text! Look! E-mail access too!

Apple fanboys, buy a new phone every year when the new one comes out

The 'new phone every year' types are usually on a contract with their carrier where they get the latest model every x amount of months/years. Most aren't buying it outright

I keep my phones for 5-7 years. Generally once it stops receiving security updates I'll get a new one

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.

Until death does us apart. On avg. that's 4 years and generally the first failure it's their battery life

Somewhere between 3 & 4 years. Typically something has to go wrong with my current one.

When the old one is no longer suitable for use as a primary phone:

• Nexus 5 - broke the screen. Actually still mostly works to this day, and I have Android 9 on it.
• Sony X Compact - small onboard storage, Android's crappy SD card support, and a lack of quality third-party ROMs after official support ended shortened this one's service life.
• Pixel 4a - current phone, don't want to "upgrade" to something that's bigger and doesn't have a headphone jack, mildly annoyed the fingerprint sensor broke.

I only buy crappy ones, so usually every 2-3 years, but this Samsung a06 is making me think I should buy a new phone after only 1 year because it's pretty bad!

I used to upgrade every 2 years until I got an iPhone 15 Pro. I was going to ride or die with my 13 mini but I really wanted to get all my devices on usb-c. I splurged on my current phone with the intention to keep it for a long time. Going on 3 years now.

I used to go hard on the androids with rooting and customizing. I’ve since resigned myself to wanting a phone that “just works.”

Normally I keep a phone until severe hardware failure (spicy pillow, broken digitizer, not charging...)

The only thing that has gotten me to upgrade was the Boox Palma 2 Pro for it's e-ink display specifically, due to eyestrain from reading on LCD, and my Galaxy A23 5G i received as a gift having its display start falling out (and fear of future storage/ram prices)

(technically almost a phone due SIMs only being supported for mobile data, but i use a flip phone for SIM-based calls/sms anyway)

I spent a little more to get the upgraded newest model of the android phone I'm currently typing this on, released in January 2021 and received by me in March. I had to replace my previous phone because the battery started to fail and it was failing behind in Android versions, meaning some newer apps could no longer be installed and some older apps could no longer be updated. Current phone still going strong, no signs of being any slower than it was originally. Mostly have used wireless charging and battery protection schemes in the OS, so USB port still works well and charges just fine either way. I feel like phones hit a performance plateau a few years ago and I see no reason for an "upgrade". If my current phone needs to be replaced, I fully expect to be forced to pay more for less given the costs of memory these days. Previously I'd been basically forced to upgrade every 2 years because I always bought the contract special "free" phone and updates stopped or the battery pillowed.

My smartphone progression was as follows

• Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini (Don't remember when I got this one. I wish companies still made phones this small...)
• Huawei P9 Lite (Bought in 2016 I think)
• Xiaomi Mi 9T (Bought in 2019)
• Google Pixel 7 (Bought in 2023)

So far, none of my phones had to be replaced due to hardware failure or damage luckily. The S3 Mini simply got too old. When I upgraded, it could not even play a Youtube video in the app without lagging due to severe RAM limitations. I remember having a screenshot of the RAM usage that said I had less than a MiB of RAM remaining at some point.

My P9 lite was fine. At some point my grandmother decided she wanted a smartphone though and instead of buying a new one for herself she told me to upgrade and give her the old one. When that one got to slow for her, the cycle repeated with me giving her my Xiaomi Mi 9T and upgrading to the Pixel 7 which I use to this day.

When I developed for Android: every two or three years or so:

• HTC Magic
• Nexus One (one year later, but was gifted it by Google)
• Nexus 4
• Nexus 6 pro

At that point I changed jobs and had to pay for my own phone. Also, became a parent.

• Samsung Galaxy s8 - cracked the screen after half a year in a child-related incident. Kept going for a while.
• Samsung galaxy s10 - cracked the screen quite fast in a sleep deprivation related incident.
• Google Pixel Pro 7 (At this point I started wrapping my phone in mous.
• Samsung Galaxy S26 ultra (I won this in a competition, but didn't need to replace my old phone)

So... I never felt like I needed to chase new features after I stopped working with android development, and really, the wild development rush pretty much stopped, but I kept changing phones because I kept breaking them all of a sudden.

I want to do now, I have mine since 2019 and still working but im tired of android

Every 4 to 6 years; using Iphone.

Usually wait for some reason to change, which is almost always unrelated to features on new phones. Either the phone breaks, gets lost or there is something specific I want which my phone doesn't have. Plan to get a new one this year to get a bigger screen, otherwise would have kept the existing one which works perfectly fine, does everything I need and is going on 6 years without any issues.

5 years before even thinking if I need to change. Mostly longer than that as long as it holds up well. We're well past the point of any meaningful upgrades in hardware. A flagship phone should last anyone a really long time.

I own my Fairphone 4 for a bit over 4 years already. Bought a new battery once and some screen protectors. It's still doing great and I don't understand why I would need a new one any time soon.

5 years the last one.

The hardware, including battery, worked great. But it has been lacking updates for some years and I'm worried about vulnerabilities. LineageOS was also not available for this phone.

I bought a phone with 7 years updates and my initial intention is keeping it for 7 years. More if an stable and secure version of LineageOS is available down the line.

I use my wife's old phone when she changes, which is roughly every 5 years or so. Chinese brand, excellent quality, running some fork of Android (couldn't tell you which).

i haven't bought a new phone for decade+.

daily driver is a 2013 phone. i do have newer phones i got from family members that stopped using them, but to me they're less comfortable than my old phone. gonna keep it till it breaks or Y2038 hits

I will use it until it stops being viable. This used to mean "until the battery dies", but I've also swapped batteries in phones not designed for it, and still had to get a new one as the batteries available weren't OEM and so bad they basically didn't work despite being new. Like phone always just turns off at like 40% charge. That isn't "viable" in my eyes.

Now I've got a Fairphone 5. It's only been a few years, but I'm planning on 10+ years if I can make it happen. In theory some new feature could get me to buy one sooner, but I highly doubt it. Hasn't happened in the past either.

I'm on my 18th phone in 29 years.

I worked in app development for half that time, so there was a strong incentive to be on the latest if there were any new innovations to support.

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...

The thing about rich people is that they don't care about making responsible choices. $1000 is throwaway money to them when they have a $60,000 leased car and go to disney twice a year.

Just smashed my iphone 11 in a derailer, which is a railroad related accident.

I had bought it used about 8 years ago, the iPhone 11, and took the opportunity to spend 500$ on a pixel 10a and put graphene OS on it.

Funny story: I set up the duress password, and afterwards, was setting up new users. Well one of the new users I setup us3d the same pin as as the duress password! D'Oh! Anyways... The duress pin works! Had to go to cricket to implement a new esim! Lol.

Love the phone tho!

I've had my current phone for about 5 years and am thinking of getting a new one this fall.

When 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.

I got my first smartphone in 2014, and I'm on my third now, so once every 4 years on average. Hoping the graphene motorola will be out when my current pixel goes EoL in 2027.

i swear the apple v android articles are fodder pumped out by media companies because it’s easy ad money.

don’t get me wrong, conspicuous consumption has ruined some people’s ability to own their identity but outside of brand fanaticism surely “normal” customers purchase phones based on when they need it. When do you buy bread? Typically when you want to eat something which has bread.

perhaps not the point of the original question but surely we’re getting beyond the point of being baited by low-quality online content.

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.

I avoid it as much as possible.

The current phone I am using to type this right now is someone's old phone that they graciously gifted to me when they went and got a new one.

Not going to spend lots of money on tech that is going to be called old in a year.

I used to change every 2 years. First, it was included in my mobile plan and each was really better than the previous one. Then, I took a plan without mobile. I bought one, I lost it after two years. I bought a really old second-hand one, it broke after two years and it was not updated anymore, so I changed. I bought a very old one that was not updated after two years. It was frustrating, so I bought a new one four years ago. I plan to keep it as long as possible now they are updated longer.

10 years ago , been using hand me downs since

Finally smashed the screen on my ~4 year old Sony Xperia 1 IV recently. I got a used screen (and a new battery while I was at it) off AliExpress. Cost about $400 but it feels brand new, so hopefully i'll get a good few more years out of it.

A few phones back I started getting a second hand flagdhip phone every 3-4 years, I think it's well worth the flagship second hand 1 year old model instead of the mid range phones I used to get for the same price.

Plus the last couple have been pixels for GraphineOS, so it's nice to not be directly handingb Google money.

Whenever the screen breaks or the phone can't run the game I was trying to play smoothly enough. Yes, I have switched phones because they could barely run a specific game (and I don't even do much gaming at all anymore)

5-6 years at least

When the cost of repair, usually the screen, exceeds the used price of the phone. I'm currently on a pixel 6a with a broken screen and it's at that point now, think it's been 4 years and 3 screens. On screen broke falling from the sofa on to the carpet, which was annoying as it had no external damage

I keep using it as much as I can. Currently iPhone 16 that I don’t see upgrading it before the iPhone 21.

Before that, iPhone X.

So, moreless every 5 years.

Current phone is just shy of 4 years old. I have no intention of changing it. I've been looking after the battery, trying to keep it in the 80% to 20% range with the occasional full charge so it's still going strong.

Last one I got 5 years out of.

Only when the current one dies

I have a phone in my house that is bordering on ten years, I believe. Still useable.

I have another that is reaching six years old.

The one I'm personally using currently is reaching three and will replace one of those I previously mentioned.

I intend to get a de-googled phone soon and expect that to last at least eight years.

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 ..etc

About every 4 years.

this article that especially Apple fanboys, buy a new phone every year when the new one comes out

send

Last I heard, that was consistently 20% across Android and Apple.

I think if I had the money to burn, as much as there's distaste for the practice, I probably WOULD replace my phone frequently, or maybe at least as often as it takes my fancy or I hear about one that sounds cool. It's nice having cool new shit. But, I've never had that kind of money to burn and the reality is there's something weirdly idiosyncratic and personal to what makes a 'good' phone nowadays when there's so little to separate them and they're all pretty much amazing magical sci-fi devices so it's always going to be 4 years minimum. Typically what ends up killing the marriage is that I've accidentally managed to smash the poor thing somehow, that's even when I've actually ended up hating the thing. I'm just never going to waste the thing I paid for even when it turned out to be a bad buy.

I bought a new phone every year, until i bought the Oneplus 5, in 2017. Until then, every new Phone had a "wow"-effect, big differeces in speed, camera, ... Right around that time, phones have gotten so good, that i stopped buying new ones, there is no need anymore. You buy a new phone and the camera is 5% better, you wont see that. I now buy new, when the Phone doesnt get Updates. Currently on Fairphone 4, running Lineage OS. Next Phone will probably be a Fairphone again.

Lmao why make shit up?

Android fanboys think about Apple more than anyone else.

Also, you’re just wrong. Apple users keep their phones longer

https://medium.com/the-story-well/why-do-apple-users-tend-to-keep-their-phones-for-longer-than-android-users-f8d14d867197

https://cirpapple.substack.com/p/iphone-owners-keep-phones-longer