How often do you upgrade your phone?

[Thrift Store Scott]

I only buy a new phone when service is discontinued on my old phone. When service was discontinued for my Nokia 1100, I bought a 3G phone. When 3G was discontinued I moved up to a 4G phone.

[Fritz]

iPho 3G
HTC Sensation
HTC One M7 - fave ever
LG G4 (pofs!) - replaceable batt was it's only saving grace
HTC U11 (from Swappa) - replaced batt. Not too hard. Used 4 years and is my b.u.
Pixel 5 (from Swappa) - probably replace winter '24 with a used or T-Mo'd P7 or P8. As long as the batt gives me 12 hours or so. Though I do carry a 12k mAh power bank.

~2 years average

[Rick-o]

3GS - 6S+ - and 14 ProMax I got last year.

The 6S+ was new and lasted until I upgraded to the 14 ProMax. And that was with the original battery! Cold weather finally did the 6S+ in. It would work fine until I went out in freezing weather. Then the battery went to 4-5%. In warm temps it still worked perfectly fine. Probably the best phone of the bunch (so far).

[sekker]

We have had options to upgrade every 2 years as a business perk. So one new iPhone every other year going into our stable, with folk using this set of phones for variable times.

The exception was getting an 'upgrade' deal during COVID for an iPhone 12Pro at AT&T. What a hassle! Took hours and >10 phone calls for them to 'find' and then 'credit' the iPhone6+ we sent in. Anyway...

Right now, daughter has a beloved iPhone8+. She loves the touchID. So she will keep it until it dies. We will likely replace the battery this year.

Spouse has said iPhone12Pro. It works fine. I doubt she will upgrade unless she physically breaks it.

In general, our iPhone stable will deploy for 3-5 years, but sometimes with different 'owners'.

[jdc]

pretty solid 3 years, mainly cause we do the trade in, been with ATT (and cingular) for 20+ years

I just don't remember the steps, and the steps changed once we added phones for the kids.

went from various (5, 6, 7) to Xrs, the Xr to 12, and soon 12 to 15, maybe the pro. Id like to up my 12 mini to a 13 mini for the better battery (which really isnt an issue for me anyway), but no deals, so prob keep my 12mini for as long as it runs. its absolutely 100% fine. Sadly, battery health is 84%, which isnt great, but prob average after 3 years. Kids both have 128 GB phones and are full. even after deleting a ton of stuff. Billions of photos/videos and messages. So 256 has been requested.

I doubt the 16 or 17 will be much different than the 15. So 18 will be next. Not sure what more they can do at this point. Another camera? different colors? battery incrementally better? Carbon fiber? Would love a folding phone.

[RAMd®d]

Let's see...

OG, 3GS, 4S, 5S (5yrs), OG SE, 12 mini.

I don't know what I'll do for my next 'Phone, probably look for a 13 mini.

[GGD]

I think one thing that threads like this show is that for the most part Apple's hardware is pretty reliable (Macs too), and the old devices still basically work when retired but performance and software support are the likely motivations for hardware replacement.

[fauch]

iPhone 4
iPhone 6
and currently iPhone 11... Not planning to upgrade soon.

[vision63]

Fritz wrote:
iPho 3G
HTC Sensation
HTC One M7 - fave ever
LG G4 (pofs!) - replaceable batt was it's only saving grace
HTC U11 (from Swappa) - replaced batt. Not too hard. Used 4 years and is my b.u.
Pixel 5 (from Swappa) - probably replace winter '24 with a used or T-Mo'd P7 or P8. As long as the batt gives me 12 hours or so. Though I do carry a 12k mAh power bank.

~2 years average

I had that U11

My HTC phones:

Evo 4G Lte (the very first 4G phone)
One M7
One M8
One M9
U11

I wanted the U12 but Sprint refused to carry it.

[mrbigstuff]

Android boi here. My phone model is about 6 years old, and I'd buy another if this one breaks.