QOTW: How long do you expect a smartphone to last?

[peterb]

Or an iPhone user.

I mean, broken front glass on an iPhone is almost like a badge of honour...

Not on mine it isn’t. Like all things made with a glass content, they need to be treated apptopriately.

[wazzickle]

Phones are at the point that you do not have to keep upgrading.

This flies in the face of the entire business model and will not turn out to be true, unfortunately.

[wazzickle]

Like all things made with a glass content, they need to be treated apptopriately.

That also runs counter to things like 'use all day every day' and 'keep in pockets while doing stuff'. Most of my belongings break at some point in their life, through my clumsiness. My Pixel was no exception, surviving a number of small and medium drops unscathed but finally succumbing to a drop while walking (does treating appropriately mean not using one while walking? I'd have thought 'appropriate' in this case should refer to design but then they want to sell more phones rather than tougher ones) followed by a swift catching/breaking it's fall motion with my foot which slowed it down entirely and then still broke the bottom of the screen.

Since then, perhaps unrelated, my pixel thinks it's a nexus, which made file transfer impossible until I took it into the phone shop to work out what the hell was wrong with it. Phones are supposed to make your life easier but they don't in my case and I often leave mine at home. /rant

[peterb]

^^Well, if you leave it at home, it’s less likely to be damaged through clumsiness!

[3dcandy]

But there are a lot off poor quality after market replacement batteries out there. And while it’s posdible to have a non- consumer removable battery changed by a dodgy third party ‘repairer’ having a fixed battery replaced by the mfr or their agent gives some reassurance that the replacement will be up to spec.

Ahhh but there is the option of a "proper" manufacturers replacement usually available. Problem is that many users won't pay the price because they believe it's a rip-off. Got a mate who had a Beamer but worked at a Honda dealership. Kept on getting misfire issues - the garage changed the coil pack 7 times before he bit the bullet and bought the proper part. Solved it straight away. Same thing right there...

[b0redom]

I've had my iPhone 6 plus since December 2014. My kids have installed all sorts of stuff on it, and I've not noticed a slow down or battery problem. I'm considering upgrading as I need more storage - I've got a pretty long commute at the moment and I want to be able to cache training videos and Netflix content.

[jim]

I would like to think 3-4 years. Battery is the biggest issue for me as time goes on - my old OPO and work iPhone run low far too quickly for my liking, so bought a phone with a massive battery this time round for my personal use.

Admittedly, other things may start to go wrong but I'm hoping that will enable me to keep it for much longer than other phones.

[Queelis]

At least 2 years (as long as the warranty), anything else is a nice bonus. This June it's 2 years for my Nexus 5X, don't really have any serious issues with it (it's getting slightly slower, the battery isn't what it used to be, but nothing major, still lasts me the whole day). It basically has to become near-unusable (my previous Sony Xperia T did) for me to change it.

[Millennium]

This is a good question and the kind of thread where I don't feel I need to read the whole thing to reply.

For me .... 2.5 to 3.5 years. There or thereabouts. I bought a phone with 6000 mah so it would still have useful life after 2-3 years. Maybe I can get a service centre to fit a replacement at some stage.

It still only lasts me around 20 hours .... apparently some of these manufacturers from the far east are flat out lying about the capacity of the lithium ion cells they fit.

[Wolfclaw]

5 years minimum, with a real software update plan and not just a random update here and there in the first year!

[3dcandy]

This is a good question and the kind of thread where I don't feel I need to read the whole thing to reply.

For me .... 2.5 to 3.5 years. There or thereabouts. I bought a phone with 6000 mah so it would still have useful life after 2-3 years. Maybe I can get a service centre to fit a replacement at some stage.

It still only lasts me around 20 hours .... apparently some of these manufacturers from the far east are flat out lying about the capacity of the lithium ion cells they fit.

Might also be poor software and optomisation. mah isn't the only metric you need to use (though it is the best for a guess)

[Presto86]

For me it has to last 5/7 years. The phone I have now is around 4 years old, so in the next year or two I will be getting a new one.

[OilSheikh]

Beware of keeping a phone for too long. Both the missus and mum have had theirs for over 2 years and they are complaining of ear pains. Apparently, it's something to do with the magnet.

[peterb]

Beware of keeping a phone for too long. Both the missus and mum have had theirs for over 2 years and they are complaining of ear pains. Apparently, it's something to do with the magnet.

Or it could be who is talking to them!

[b0redom]

Beware of keeping a phone for too long. Both the missus and mum have had theirs for over 2 years and they are complaining of ear pains. Apparently, it's something to do with the magnet.

Is this another one of those things you say which shouldn't be interpreted as actual truth, or be backed up with any evidence, or can you point to a link?

[tweake628]

i am still using and love my Samsung note 4 and i am using the battery still from when i got it but its way over do to be replaced .i am looking at a 10000 mha one with back door there cheap now lol