What is the longest you held on to your smart phone?

[Doctor Amadeus]

What is the longest you held on to your smart phone?

What did or do you get when you upgrade?

Do you Still have it, and how long do you normally hold on to your smartphone?

If you upgrade every year what is your experience Pros and Cons?

Any Advice on brands you swear off?


Personally I have had my 4S now for nearly 5 years and I feel it, it crashes all the time. However I am looking to get my next phone I want to hold on to it for as long as possible, any reccomendations.

I am thinking about getting the

Iphone 7 NOT the 7S coming up.



I thought about Samsung, but I like Apples stability and software that seems pretty secure, from hacking and viruses.


How about YOU are you about ready to upgrade what do you have your eye on?

[Denarius]

I've been through 3 smart phones. First was Motorola Razr, second was Galaxy S4, and i upgraded to the S5 on some stupid cheap deal. Razr lasted 2 years, but when i got it, they had already stopped making it. So when i broke it, they couldn't replace it, so i bought the S4 (huge discount no matter what i picked because they didn't have the phone to replace with the insurance). So I've been on Samsung for about 4 years now. BTW, never had a virus or gotten my phone hacked. So, i'm not sure why you'd go with a 850$ (7, shipped free from Apple) phone, when you can get a 675$ (S8, free shipping from Samsung ) phone with better specs.

[Kithelle]

I had mine for about 2 and a half years...the battery was dying and my brother got me a new one last christmas.

[Alvito]

My personal phone is a S4 I got when they were brand new. With most phone companies changing how you upgrade phones the desire to keep the phone upgrade cycle going has vanished.

[Venarik]

I finally got my first and so far only smartphone about 2 years ago (samsung galaxy grand core prime.) It's a nice phone as far as I can tell, but a year after I got it I left it in my car on a really hot day and I think that ruined the battery a bit; I end up having to charge it every day or two now instead of like once a week.

[Doctor Amadeus]

I've been through 3 smart phones. First was Motorola Razr, second was Galaxy S4, and i upgraded to the S5 on some stupid cheap deal. Razr lasted 2 years, but when i got it, they had already stopped making it. So when i broke it, they couldn't replace it, so i bought the S4 (huge discount no matter what i picked because they didn't have the phone to replace with the insurance). So I've been on Samsung for about 4 years now. BTW, never had a virus or gotten my phone hacked. So, i'm not sure why you'd go with a 850$ (7, shipped free from Apple) phone, when you can get a 675$ (S8, free shipping from Samsung ) phone with better specs.

Yeah, mostly because of the security and rarity of viruses, and I am afraid to go samsung, and start over with getting used to it. I do hate the price on Iphone which is why I still have my 4S, I could have done it sooner, but I actually rather just have it work as long as I can until I move up, unless their something new I need, like Apple Pay.

- - - Updated - - -

The Fappeneing would like to have a word with you.

Hahaha I am a dumb ass, I guess I thought that was just cloud storage through their other product lines, I never liked the whole cloud storage thing.

- - - Updated - - -

I finally got my first and so far only smartphone about 2 years ago (samsung galaxy grand core prime.) It's a nice phone as far as I can tell, but a year after I got it I left it in my car on a really hot day and I think that ruined the battery a bit; I end up having to charge it every day or two now instead of like once a week.

Yeah, same here on the battery, You know I had mine so long, I stop realizing OH yeah, it's not supposed to need to be recharged that damn often. I think when I upgrade I am looking forward to how batteries changed.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Fear of viruses and such is more than easily countered by not installing every dumb app some shady ads recommend. I've had Androids exclusively so far, and never ever had to deal with even the hint of a virus or even any other malicious software ever. Android is the same as IOS is the same as Windows is the same as Linux: It all comes down to how well you're able to conduct yourself in the digital age.

I get what you are saying but I do realize I can be fooled.

Cloud storage certainly played a big role in them, but I attribute a lot of its success to the guillability of Apple users to trust such services in the first place. And at the end of the day: All pictures to be seen were taken by an IPhone.

Damn that sobering.

Apple is not a company dealing in magic. Li-Ion batteries are the same across the spectrum, as are average energy consumptions. As far as I have seen, this type of battery is best served by storage at about 20°C and 70-80% charge. It doesn't suffer from the feared "memory effect" where constantly keeping it loaded causes damage, but in turn is very prone to deep discharge damage, where letting it run below 10% or less can have long term adverse effects. Also NEVER store these things in a fridge, nor a very warm place!

The worst offenders to battery life for me so far have been:
1) The screen itself. Even an OLED at 30% brightness was easily able to "out-suck" all other components and software.
2) WLAN, a very close second to the screen. Even if unused it still continues to scan the "ether" frequently, drawing quite a good chunk of power.

These two easily make up 50% of my phone's drain, and it was not much different for the other ones I owned so far.

Also normal is that the batteries will be at their best when fresh. I have my current Samsung Galaxy S5 for about 3 years now, and I started out having to charge it only every week or so (WLAN off and no screen usage above a few minutes a day cummulatively). By now I need to charge every 1-2 days, if using the navigating feature for longer drives (and thus constant screen uptime for hours on end) even every 4-5 hours. This would all be gone and remedied if I treated myself to a new battery - something Apple doesn't even allow you to install.

My verdict should be rather obvious.

Edit: But I strongly agree with your sentiment to holding onto your current device until either it gives up on you, or there is a feature you really really don't want to live without anymore. It is THE most sane thing to do with tech, especially with such that evolves so rapidly, especially regarding its price, no matter the brand.

Yeah one thing I am annoyed with is not being able to expand the storage on Iphone, and I have had mine so long it crashes all the time, I think if i could expand the storage I wouldn't care and keep it until it just stopped working totally.

But the apple pay is something I can use.

Thanks for the information. and Honestly one thing I do hate the most about Iphone is after I got my 4S I got an ios upgrade and it made all my icons and GUI look kiddie and stupid.

I was real close to swearing apple off after that. I don't like my phone to look cartoonish.

[Altrec]

My first smart phone was the Samsung Fascinate(Galaxy S) and I didn't replace it until just after the Galaxy 6s released when I bought a LG G4

[Rooflesstoofless]

Just went from a Note 2 whenever those were brand new to an iPhone 7s. So four years I think.

[dacoolist]

I started with the S2 Skyrocket (Samsung) - I swapped over for work to the iPhone 5S about 2 years later - I then upgraded to the iP7 about 6 months ago - All of my friends and family typically have Android or IOS devices. Nothing against windows phone or blackberry or non-smart phones, they just don't accomplish what I need in a phone.

Whatever ecosystem you're in, go for that. As far as OT: about 2 years per device maybe 3ish from the 5S to the 7, but I use the heck out of these touch devices like tablets and smartphones hahah <3

[Captain N]

I've had a Galaxy S 3 up until just a couple months ago I upgraded to the S7 -- so 4 maybe 5 years?

[dacoolist]

I've had a Galaxy S 3 up until just a couple months ago I upgraded to the S7 -- so 4 maybe 5 years?

Holy cow... I bet you're loving that upgrade hahahah

- - - Updated - - -

I had my atrix 2 for 3 years before I recycled it. After that I got a samsung galaxy prime. Good phone but it's storage space blew. Now I use a lg k20 plus. No gripes on my end about this. I thought about signing up for a s8 but I really dont want to deal with another 2 year contract.

Check these badwoys out! https://oneplus.net Great device for sure or dedicated updates like this rockstar: https://madeby.google.com/phone/

You'll enjoy these if you go in to a store just to check them out first hand of course. I'd say: contract free is the way to go!

[Dr Assbandit]

In the past 10 years I have had just an EnV from Verizon and an Iphone. The EnV was falling apart towards the end but still worked perfectly and the Iphone is still in pristine condition except for the battery which has issues charging now.

As long as it works reasonably well I don't feel the need to constantly upgrade my cars, phones, and other electronics.

[StationaryHawk]

Had my Nexus 4 for about three years. Was working fine, but my brother bought himself a new phone and passed his Nexus 5 on to me. No intention of upgrading for a while yet.

[skitzin]

I hold on to them until they completely die in the arse or get broken. In total I have had maybe 3-4 smart phones total.

[Surfd]

I usually rotate out every 2 or 3 generations, usually cashing in on a good Boxing Day or Black Friday sale to get a 0$ phone attached to a 2 year contract. My old Phone was a Galaxy S3, which I had for a good 4 years. I only decided it was time to upgrade because: The Battery was starting to totally tank, the case coming apart, and I had gotten hooked on a few Mobile Games that were crushing the S3's processing power.

My new phone is a Galaxy S7, which I pretty much got for nothing (and I scored a Samsung GearFit 2 for free as part of a promo deal they were having at the time, which retails for something like 250 bucks off the shelf here), which will probably last me till they release a S10 or 11 or some other Phone around that generation catches my eye.

[schwarzkopf]

Replace my iPhone very 1 or 2 years, contract purchasing where I am halves the price of the phone when all the maths is done.

Resale on iPhones is pretty good to, so I end up with anew one every so often very cheaply.

[callipygoustp]

I've had my Samsung Galaxy s5 since Oct 14: it's still going strong - battery life is solid, never EVER has it crashed on me, no noticeable slowdown.
A couple factors led me to choosing the Galaxy S5:
1. At the time I was doing some mobile development and I greatly prefer developing on android rather than on iPhone.
2. The cost of a current iPhone was significantly higher than that of the Galaxy s5.
3. Expansion slot.
4. Solid hardware.


My previous phone was a Droid Bionic. I had the Droid Bionic for just over 2 years when the battery started going bad and it died fast. If it wasn't for the replacement battery costing close to the same amount as getting the Samsung Galaxy S5, I may still have the Droid Bionic today.

When shopping for the Droid Bionic there were two factors that led to the purchase: expansion card slot and I got a great deal on it that resulted in me getting +$20 cash in pocket.


Suggestions on brands to stay away from? Other than the price differences, I don't really have a preference. My work phone is an iPhone 7. Its nice and powerful and full featured. The only significant different between the iphone 7 and my personal phone, the Galaxy s5, is the price. Otherwise, imo, wtfever. I'll leave further discussion of which is better to those nutty fan bois on either side of the fence.

[Witchblade77]

I voted 4 years but honestly.. I'll keep using it as long as it keeps working/getting security updates. really don't care about the never ending chase for the latest

[Dispraise]

Don't own one, never have.