Poll: How old is your smartphone?

How old is your smartphone?

  • Under one year

    Votes: 89 21.2%
  • One to two years

    Votes: 81 19.3%
  • Two to three years

    Votes: 96 22.9%
  • Three to four years

    Votes: 73 17.4%
  • Four to five years

    Votes: 41 9.8%
  • Five to six years

    Votes: 20 4.8%
  • Six to seven years

    Votes: 8 1.9%
  • Seven to eight years

    Votes: 3 0.7%
  • Older than eight years

    Votes: 9 2.1%

  • Total voters
    420

V F

V F

Soldato
Joined
13 Aug 2003
Posts
21,184
Location
UK
When you see what the top end ones cost and how little they improve every year now, it seems crazy to upgrade too often. Sticking with my OnePlus 7pro one more year. Then I'll upgrade due to no update to android 13.

Photo quality definitely has came on leaps and bounds though. Though it'll never be good as DSLR.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
25 Oct 2002
Posts
31,732
Location
Hampshire
Just over two years old. Can't really justify replacing it but I probably will at some point to get 5G, although because I'm not commuting at present there really isn't much need for faster mobile internet. Back of the phone is scratched/cracked more than normal for my phones of this age, but screen seems fine.

So basically the key drivers for me will when can I get all these for a cheap price:
  • 5G
  • Long battery life
  • High end processor / RAM
  • High refresh rate
  • Good camera
Was considering this for £199 earlier but can't really justify it, maybe if it was under £150:

POCO F3 5G 256GB/ 8GB (6.67” 120Hz AMOLED, SD 870, 48MP Triple Camera, 4520mAh)
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2003
Posts
6,248
Location
There's a voice that keeps on calling me.
Phone prices are rediculous 1k for iPhone or Samsung is crazy money. This will ensure most will keep running phones for much much longer. My wife’s got an IPhone 7 Plus and it’s as good as my 11 an that was a ~100 phone used from FB 6 months ago. For me a decent camera and min 128gb storage is important.

I can’t remember when I was ‘impressed’ by a new phone.
 
Soldato
Joined
3 Apr 2009
Posts
3,973
Location
Warrington
2 year old Samsung Galaxy S10 here.

Swore I'd never get another 'flagship' phone after being a bit disappointed in how little it brought compared to my moto g5+ (which I had for about 3 years) in day to day use. The better camera was a real upgrade and the screen does look a bit nicer, and waterproofing is good, but off the top of my head those were the only noticeable improvements. On the downside I lost gesture controls which I used a lot (shaking the phone to turn the torch on was so handy, and it's infuriating that Samsung didn't let you easily map a function like turning the torch on to the waste of space Bixby button), and in general apps seem to crash more on the S10 (could just be apps changing over time I suppose). The glass back on the S10 is a poor design choice too imo (and I have since managed to crack it by hitting it with a dog lead clip despite it being in a case), and the behind-the-glass fingerprint sensor works less reliably.

Battery life is noticeably worse now than when new, but hopefully I can hold on to the S10 for a while longer (to avoid waste, and save money).

However I do really like the look of the S22 Ultra cameras... Just need to hold off as long as possible until that kind of camera tech makes its way down to the less exorbitantly priced models. I guess at some point not having 5g will start to become a pain too. Hopefully I'll be able to get that kind of camera in a 5g phone with a bigger battery too, given how poor battery life seems to end up limiting the useful life of many phones these days.

Maybe my next phone will be able to last me as long as my first phone did... (had an old Nokia for basically all of secondary school...). My first smartphone (galaxy S2) and the moto G5+ were phones I really liked, and just worked really well for me (except when the S2 needed its guts replacing by Samsung which was a PITA, but we'll gloss over that...). The S10 is much more of a 'meh' for me, along with a moto g2 and a galaxy S6 which I had for shorter periods of time.
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
27 Apr 2007
Posts
3,062
2 week old S22 Ultra but only because i'm in charge of the company phone contracts. Otherwise itd be something less expensive, I do love the S-pen though and have had them since the original Note.
 
Associate
Joined
16 Jun 2008
Posts
1,247
I've had my Mate 20 Pro for almost 3.5 years, the battery still lasts for more than a day unless I use it heavily and it's still able to handle most things I throw at it (including dropping it multiple times resulting in just a few minor surface scratches!) so I'm not inclined to upgrade. I've been tempted by the iPhone 13 mini as I prefer the smaller form factor but I don't really want to move away from android.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Nov 2005
Posts
8,636
Location
Southampton
IIRC I bought my Mi A2 in summer '19, after my perfectly working bargain Maze Alpha fell from my shirt pocket in a fake leather case to the floor and turned into a brick, despite no external signs of damage. It feels like it's getting slower, freezes up sometimes, the ~3000mAh battery seems to need charging daily after some web browsing and especially after Zwift turbo trainer gaming.

I bought one of the Poco F3 bargains last week for £180 with a small rucksack, it's fully charged, but I've yet to set it up including transferring the prepaid 24GB Three sim to it (which I think will do 5G)... I'm expecting the F3 to be much snappier, but as is often the case, I'm not very good in letting old items go when they still basically cover my requirements. I only stopped using my Nexus 7 2013 tablet when the touchscreen went all funny and the micro usb port stopped working after ~5 years!

I do use my mobile a lot for casual browsing at home away from the pc and outdoors besides the turbo training, so I'm hoping I won't regret the F3's ~4500mAh battery, compared to the hip and trendy 5000+ in many mobiles. Sounds like the Snapdragon (870?) is quite power efficient.

Silly question but, could I setup the F3 over wifi without moving the sim over for now, just to get updates and have a little play with indoors?
 

hux

hux

Soldato
Joined
9 Dec 2009
Posts
2,754
Location
Dogbin
Currently an Asus Rog 3, it's a brilliant phone bar the camera which is a let down vest mediocre.

It's currently being a silly bugger, as sometimes freezes and only the size buttons work. Only does it for a few seconds, and only on the odd occasion.
I find a reboot stops it for a while, so probably memory related. Doesn't help my dropping it a few times, but it's not damaged so it's one tough phone.

Very tempted to get the oppo X5 pro, but I'll miss the two usb ports, the ability to set the charge limit and power it from usb rather than battery.
I use a usb dac a fair bit, so might wait and see what the rog 6 will be like.
 
Soldato
Joined
12 Feb 2009
Posts
4,324
Sony Xperia Z1 White, September 2013.

So just over 8.5 years. On it's 4th battery and 2nd screen (1st got trashed in 2015).

I probably should upgrade soon as it overheats a bit now.
 
Associate
Joined
14 Apr 2022
Posts
19
Location
Leicester
iPhone 13. 4-5 months old. Bet it's going to last a long time.

Before it was an iPhone 6s. It lasted 5 years. If it wasn't for the cracked screen, the battery problem and the overheating, i wouldn't have changed it to the iPhone 13.
 
Back
Top Bottom