How often do I upgrade my smartphone?

18th November 2022

The smartphone is the most important device we own. I mean, it can do so many things—it's a phone, a camera, a music player, and more! It's hard to believe a phone can be so important, but it is. Like how people have preferences about the music and food they eat, there will be a preferred smart device for you—iOS or Android for starters, then which brand, which model, what features, and more. I, for one am on team Android. 

Now, while manufacturers would love for you to rush out to the stores each time a new model is announced, it is simply not financially feasible, viable or logical for a lot of us to buy a new smartphone every year or every time a new model of our loving brand of smartphones shows up in the market. It is disturbingly hilarious on how quickly certain brands introduce the sequels or facelifts or the next best thing nowadays. Sigh!

Moving on, the way we use our phones has changed a lot in the last few years. We're more connected than ever before and have more information at our fingertips than any one human could ever use. But that doesn't mean that every phone needs to have all of those features! Phones are powerful enough that the average user won’t notice the difference between the newest, shiniest model compared to last years. Other factors such as e-waste and pollution, the constant price increases for new phones (looking at you, Samsung, OnePlus), and few other reasons are actually causing people to hold off on upgrading as it is simply not required. I'm not saying that you should go without any benefits or features because of your budget. You should definitely get the most for your money. 

So, when should you upgrade? It honestly depends entirely on you. How often do you use your phone? What do you use it for? Are you a power user who relies on their phone for their business? Here are a few of my thoughts on things that could persuade oneself to go in for a smartphone upgrade.

Your smartphone’s performance will surely degrade over time, but with how powerful phones are getting each year, the slowdown can be attributed to software or apps. You might notice that some web pages stutter or crawl, searching for things with Spotlight takes a long time, or that QR codes take ages to be recognized by the camera. If your device has become lazy or slow, performing triage to locate the issue’s source should be your first action rather than outright buying a new phone.

A few things you can do is to free up space by deleting apps and moving data to the cloud, update your phones, try to identify if an app is putting an inordinate load on your phone, and the nuclear option, reformatting your phone. If you’ve ruled out these scenarios already, the culprit is likely the processor in your smartphone. 

If your manufacturer has ceased support for your device, there are a few things you should do. Pat yourself on the back for using a device till the end of its support cycle and look towards getting an upgrade. With the constant cycle of devices being released, older devices will be dropped from official support, and if that is the case, an upgrade is warranted.

Software and firmware updates are important for security reasons to protect the user from vulnerabilities as hackers are constantly seeking new methods and means to infiltrate your devices. Without the constant updates, it leaves your smart device open to a ruinous cyber-attack. Smartphones have experienced a number of these vulnerabilities that were directly addressed via software updates for supported models.

Software updates aren’t just about security though. All apps require a minimum version of the OS, be it iOS or Android to run, with some requiring a newer build than others. If your device isn’t compatible with the latest versions and a developer builds an app that requires this version of iOS or Android to run, you won’t be able to use this app. This can also have a domino effect on your other products. For example, if you have created an ecosystem within Apple iOS, you may see incompatibilities when accessing iCloud Tabs on a Mac, or your Air Pods may not switch between devices automatically, and other such issues. 

It is therefore a good habit to keep checking for OS updates on your smartphone device regularly.

This comes with a caveat. Depending on your device, a battery is often a fairly easy replacement fix from either first or third-party stores . If your device is still losing its charge really quickly, try replacing the battery [the assumption here being that the right-to-repair movement gains steam and gets accepted by all major manufacturers].

Sometimes though, even after a battery replacement, your device may still not perform well and could be indicative of failing hardware. If you have an old phone with a non-removable battery and it’s losing charge fast, rather than opting for a third-party battery replacement, you should think whether it would be more logical to get a new device.

There is an option for you to self-repair your device, and YouTube guides exist that show you how to range from basic component swaps to outright logic board revival. These, however, are not recommended as they could do more harm overall to your device and such actions usually will void the warranty of your device.

Like a battery losing its capacity over time, other components in your smartphone too can fail. Depending on the component, an outright replacement device can make more sense if it is a particularly important or expensive component, such as the logic board, or camera assembly. Some smartphones are actually designed to be difficult to repair or have specific components replaced and actually utilize the scummy tactic of gluing or soldering parts straight onto the board to make it near impossible to fix your phones. 

Damage to your smartphone can prevent it from working correctly. For example, a cracked screen may make it hard to read messages and cause issues with touch input. Damage to the display assembly (essentially the front of your iPhone) may affect cameras, microphones, and speakers too. A phone that can’t make phone calls isn’t ideal.

Dents to your device’s chassis can be even more devastating. Even though your phone may function, damage to the battery can cause major issues including risk of fire or worse. A damaged battery may not hold much of a charge or may be incapable of sustaining the current required for the iPhone to function under load. A good way to take care of your device is, as you obviously know, a phone case and screen protectors from a reputable online store, like our very own Cellables. Do check out the holiday specials in case you are dropping by. 

This is the simplest one. More often than not, you won’t need that new phone, but all that slick marketing and the advertising exist to ensure you into thinking that you need one. But take a good long look at how you use your phone and whether you legitimately need one. 

Suppose you are a tech aficionado and buy new devices as your hobby, sure. For the rest of us, though, if we are the average user who texts, uses social media, watches a video, and takes pictures regularly, then it’s likely that we don’t need to upgrade each year. 

If you use your smartphone as your main camera, as many people do, there’s a fair argument to be made for upgrading each time Apple or Samsung of other major players make strides in this department. 

Suppose you are a power user who absolutely lives on their phone, then it is a different story, and even then, if your current device still works great. Then why? Is there a new killer feature that will make your life easier? If you do decide to upgrade, be smart, and look at options online. Some stores can offer great value for trade-ins or offer the best price.

A few points to check prior to upgrading/exchanging your smartphones

If you're going to trade in your phone, the first thing you should do is back up your data. 

Even otherwise, it would be wise to back up your data onto an SD card or the cloud as it would make it less of a hassle to restore your new phone to that sate it was prior.

If your phone has a SIM card, it may store your personal information. Remove the SIM card. If you'll keep the same phone number, you may be able to transfer your SIM card to your new phone. But if you don't re-use the SIM card, destroy it. If your phone has an SD memory card for storage, remove it.

Your phone could have a lot of sensitive, personal information on it – like your passwords, account numbers, emails, text messages, photos, and videos. If that information ends up in the wrong hands, someone could use it to wreak havoc. They could open accounts in your name, spend your money, hack into your email, or take over your social media accounts. 

Remove information from your old phone by restoring or resetting it. After you restore, or reset your phone, confirm that you erased things like your contacts, text messages, photos, videos, and browsing history.

If your phone was paired to another device, like a watch or a vehicle, make sure it’s un-paired.

Make sure that passwords for your accounts or Wi-Fi are no longer saved on the phone.

If you use 2-step verification or multi-factor authentication to log in to any accounts, remove your phone from the list of trusted devices.

If you’re not keeping your phone number, change the number on file with any accounts or services that may be using it to identify you.

To conclude, we think that owning a phone is very personal.  Having said that, every two to three years is a good logical general rule of thumb to follow if you feel the need to get a new device every so often. Otherwise, it really is quite simple. If your phone still works, then you probably don’t need to. 

We would like to know your opinion on how often one should upgrade their smartphone. Please participate in our Cellables poll below and we will publish the results in a month, right here in this blog. Happy Holidays everyone.