Life span of basic cell phone?

Kept my old Samsung S3 for 5 years, but it was easy to change the battery in. Currently have a Samsung A5(2017) that I have had for close to 2.4 years. Battery definitely not as strong as it once was, I have purchased a new one and will try and install when the old battery performance becomes unacceptable. If I mess up the battery swap, I will buy a new phone at that time, most likely outright from Best Buy or Costco depending on the pricing at the time. My S3 was bought outright, but my A5 was part of a two year plan which I have since canned and switched providers do to a change in circumstances.

Still using my red BB passport as a daily driver that I bought in Feb 2015.

WhatsApp and YouTube still work on it…..

Battery life is a bit crappy as I think the android WhatsApp app is draining the battery.

Everything else works, great for emails, phone calls and listening to music.

I have an IPhone XS for my app needs and work UEM emails.

Will continue to use the passport until it dies!

Or if email no longer works or whatsapp

ammaretto wrote: ↑ Just curious. Ive got a 3 yr old moto G5, no complaints except i cant get it to change wallpaper background anymore.
it doesent hold a charge like it use to which is fine...i dont surf the web i just text mostly & call rarely.. i pay $15- month.

Just wondering how often people "upgrade" thier phones? do you buy out right (like i do) ?

I used to upgrade my phones when the newer version of the phone became available.

For example, not going too far back but I had a BlackBerry Q10, the next keyboard phone that BlackBerry released was the Passport so I got that (even though my BlackBerry Q10 was still working fine without any issues). BlackBerry then decided to move to Android with their Priv and I got that even though nothing was wrong with my other BlackBerries and after the Priv, I got the KEYone. After that, I stopped purchasing things just to "have the latest/greatest". I plan on purchasing a new cellphone now only if my current daily driver cellphone no longer works or applications that I really "need" can no longer be installed/used on that phone. For example, Facebook, Google Photos, and Fitbit have been updated but the OS on my phone is too old to support the newer versions but the apps still work so I am still using that phone as my daily driver.

Something usually has to give at the 2 year mark, at least for me anyway. That's when all of my batteries are noticably weaker so I end up getting a new phone. As far as 5 years of updates etc, I've never taken advantage of that as I don't see how a phone could last that long without a battery replacement.

Depending on how you use your phone.

Usually the thing that ends up killing a phone in the end (presuming you don't care about security updates, etc) is battery life.

Not being able to change the background wallpaper doesn't seem like that big of a deal, to me, personally. If that's the only thing that's gone wrong after 3 years you're in pretty good shape.

Phones seem to be designed to last 2-3 years for flagships and 1-2 years for everything else.
They get security updates typically for 2 years form release date.
They become too slow to tolerate or the battery loses too much capacity.

I have a 3 year old Motorola G6 Play that i recently replaced because its so slow it was raising my blood pressure to dangerous territory. Battery is fine 95% capacity since i took care of it (charged to 80%, never drained below 30%, no games or facebook etc) but Motorola borked the software (likely intentionally). Wirth's law plus intentional borking plus no more security updates means profit.

I believe in caring for your things. The more you toss it around and expose it to elements like heat and moisture the shorter the life span

Case in point: I have an iPhone 6S. First barely used by a family member then became my daily driver for 1.5yr. Til today it's mint and working fine albeit the internal storage is full.

2 to 3 years.
iPhone 3G, iPhone 4, Nexus 4, Nexus 5, LG G5, LG G7, Samsung S20 FE

Usually it's finding the phone starts to lag and battery isn't what it use to be.
Except the Nexus, I'll buy on contract with good subsidies.

Generally 2 to 3 years as well

For a brief period of time, I upgraded annually because of all the sweet Koodo sign-up/cancel deals

Now I'm planning on sticking with my Note 9 until it kicks the bucket (not many phones with headphone jacks and microSD slots anymore)