Poll: How old is your smartphone?

How old is your smartphone?

  • Under one year

    Votes: 113 22.6%

  • One to two years

    Votes: 90 18.0%

  • Two to three years

    Votes: 110 22.0%

  • Three to four years

    Votes: 85 17.0%

  • Four to five years

    Votes: 52 10.4%

  • Five to six years

    Votes: 24 4.8%

  • Six to seven years

    Votes: 9 1.8%

  • Seven to eight years

    Votes: 6 1.2%

  • Older than eight years

    Votes: 10 2.0%
  • Total voters
    499
Roughly 8 years on the MMC chip becoming loose issue got my Note 4, well kind of - I opened it up and stuck some cardboard in there to maintain pressure on the contacts so it works again but it is definitely on its last legs even with that it is having read/write issues. Not my only phone but the best phone by far ever and the one I always turn to if it comes down to choosing despite being so old - I have no idea why they never made a worthy successor.
 
Still rocking the OnePlus 7 Pro. Battery is dire now though so looking at either the Pixel 8 Pro or Galaxy S4 Ultra see which fits the bill best when they're released.
 
Rroff said:
Roughly 8 years on the MMC chip becoming loose issue got my Note 4, well kind of - I opened it up and stuck some cardboard in there to maintain pressure on the contacts so it works again but it is definitely on its last legs even with that it is having read/write issues. Not my only phone but the best phone by far ever and the one I always turn to if it comes down to choosing despite being so old - I have no idea why they never made a worthy successor.
Click to expand...

I couldn't go back to a phone that old. They're so slow. Even a Pixel 3 feels slow now.

Fast storage is a must. eMMC was something I'm glad we moved on from.
 
kona786 said:
I couldn't go back to a phone that old. They're so slow. Even a Pixel 3 feels slow now.

Fast storage is a must. eMMC was something I'm glad we moved on from.
Click to expand...

I've had a few phones from around that era which felt horrendously slow after a few years but never really had too much problem with the Note 4 in that regard aside from it not liking long uptime which would eventually see it taking awhile to resume or switch apps, etc. if not restarted.

I've always found Android phones for some reason both performance and battery life seem to degrade over the years even if you fully wipe/reset to as you had it on day 1 and replace the battery... which makes me go hmmmm. The Note 4 was terrible for that battery wise, less so performance.
 
Still on a Pixel 5. Three years old as of last month and honestly apart from the battery not lasting as long anymore (not really an issue as I'm rarely far away from a charger) it still works just fine, and frankly with the ridiculous cost of new phones I'm not switching until this one is dust.
 
Rroff said:
I've had a few phones from around that era which felt horrendously slow after a few years but never really had too much problem with the Note 4 in that regard aside from it not liking long uptime which would eventually see it taking awhile to resume or switch apps, etc. if not restarted.

I've always found Android phones for some reason both performance and battery life seem to degrade over the years even if you fully wipe/reset to as you had it on day 1 and replace the battery... which makes me go hmmmm. The Note 4 was terrible for that battery wise, less so performance.
Click to expand...

Maybe. But we've seen leaps in performance over the last decade which makes older stuff seem slow. Even if they're still running at their peak.

And now with 120hz screens, fast storage and SoC now we've pretty much plateaued going forward. Getting a good spec phone now will last a good 3 to 5 years if the user is not fussy.
 
Last edited:
Xiaomi Mi11 CN version flashed EU rom, 6.8 inch oled 120hz and still super fast had no need or temptation to change yet , had it close to 3 years now only issue battery isnt what it used to be shame they make it soo difficult to replace them now :(
 
kona786 said:
Maybe. But we've seen leaps in performance over the last decade which makes older stuff seem slow. Even if they're still running at their peak.

And now with 120hz screens, fast storage and SoC now we've pretty much plateaued going forward. Getting a good spec phone now will last a good 3 to 5 years if the user is not fussy.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It's the battery now which dictates the point at which people tend to get a new phone. Replacement batteries tend to not be as good as the original, and are deliberately hard and costly to replace. I guess also OS support, so when it gets uber old, apps are no longer supported and stuff. It is so wasteful though. The current model in terms of what we use our phones for, I don't think we need any more power in our pockets. The difference in spec of newer phones is more economies of scale and what chips/memory is on the market at the time due to general advances, but this is sold as being "better" and an "upgrade". The spec improvements are so incremental. Nobody tends to want to innovate much because we've also reached a point where we've come to admit that candy bar format phones with large screens allow us the best overall experience for a wide range of usage scenarios.
 
I'm still using my S9+, been about 5 years now and I've had the battery replaced at least once.

Might switch back to iPhone next, we shall see!
 
I'm using an iphone 7 plus which was released in 2016. It has a new battery so no problems there. I bought it early this year from Ebay for about £50 as a backup phone, then my main phone (android) had an issue so i started using the iphone and I still am today even though i fixed my other phone, i prefer it now.
 
1 week old, but my previous one was 5 years.


I went Nokia N97 (2 Years, loved it) > Galasy S2 (2 years, loved it) > Galaxy S4 (2 years, loved it) > Xperia Z3 (1.5 yr, hated it, what a ****** and dissappointing PoS it was, absolutely rubbish build quality compared to Samsung and utterly unable to cope wiht wear and tear, it would ****** bend in my pocket and a single crack meant the whole touch was dead, unlike samsung which continued to work even with 1000 cracks in the glass) > Oneplus 3T ( unsure how long, but Loved it) > Huawei mate 20 pro (5 yrs, loved it, still have it, recently replaced the battery, charging port etc) > Xiaomi 13 (<1 week, it's growing on me, starting to really like it).
Had some lent HTC phones during the Experia Z3 era when it went to repairs (more t an once) and loved em. I had ordered HTC for my dad in the past and always very happy with it.
 
Last edited:
3 years aeems to be sweet spot for me for performance and battery is then dead. Have done it last 3 upgrades as its a better deal to go sim only snd buy the phone
 
Still rocking my iPhone XR. Does the job, but have to be careful not to have too many apps open and to also have a battery pack or charging cable with me. That said, the battery life doesn’t seem much worse than my wife’s 14. Only paying about £17 a month for unlimited everything, so reluctant to upgrade until I really need to.
 
Last edited:
I've always bought the wrong phones but last year I bought a refurbished S21 Ultra and this will stay with me until it stops working.
100% happy with it, great screen, fast, great photos, great audio etc absolutely no need to go better unless it dies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom