I used to upgrade every 2 years until I got an iPhone 15 Pro. I was going to ride or die with my 13 mini but I really wanted to get all my devices on usb-c. I splurged on my current phone with the intention to keep it for a long time. Going on 3 years now.

I used to go hard on the androids with rooting and customizing. I’ve since resigned myself to wanting a phone that “just works.”

I currently have a refurbished Pixel 8 (chosen because it's the oldest phone recommended by GrapheneOS). I got it less than a year ago when my previous phone (a refurbished Pixel 7) started having screen problems. I got that one a few years before, when my refurbished Pixel 6 fell out of my pocket in a parking lot and got driven over by a car.

If it weren't for breakages and Graphene system requirements (for security features, not performance), I'd probably still be using the Pixel 6, if not some phone I had even before that. It's been at least half a decade or so since the last time I felt like upgrading because my phone wasn't good enough.

When the old one is no longer suitable for use as a primary phone:

• Nexus 5 - broke the screen. Actually still mostly works to this day, and I have Android 9 on it.
• Sony X Compact - small onboard storage, Android's crappy SD card support, and a lack of quality third-party ROMs after official support ended shortened this one's service life.
• Pixel 4a - current phone, don't want to "upgrade" to something that's bigger and doesn't have a headphone jack, mildly annoyed the fingerprint sensor broke.

Just smashed my iphone 11 in a derailer, which is a railroad related accident.

I had bought it used about 8 years ago, the iPhone 11, and took the opportunity to spend 500$ on a pixel 10a and put graphene OS on it.

Funny story: I set up the duress password, and afterwards, was setting up new users. Well one of the new users I setup us3d the same pin as as the duress password! D'Oh! Anyways... The duress pin works! Had to go to cricket to implement a new esim! Lol.

Love the phone tho!

Lmao why make shit up?

Android fanboys think about Apple more than anyone else.

Also, you’re just wrong. Apple users keep their phones longer

medium.com/the-story-well/why-do-apple-users-tend-to-keep-their-phones-for-longer-than-android-users…

cirpapple.substack.com/p/iphone-owners-keep-phones-longer

A few phones back I started getting a second hand flagdhip phone every 3-4 years, I think it's well worth the flagship second hand 1 year old model instead of the mid range phones I used to get for the same price.

Plus the last couple have been pixels for GraphineOS, so it's nice to not be directly handingb Google money.

When I developed for Android: every two or three years or so:
- HTC Magic
- Nexus One (one year later, but was gifted it by Google)
- Nexus 4
- Nexus 6 pro

At that point I changed jobs and had to pay for my own phone. Also, became a parent.
- Samsung Galaxy s8 - cracked the screen after half a year in a child-related incident. Kept going for a while.
- Samsung galaxy s10 - cracked the screen quite fast in a sleep deprivation related incident.
- Google Pixel Pro 7 (At this point I started wrapping my phone in mous.
- Samsung Galaxy S26 ultra (I won this in a competition, but didn't need to replace my old phone)

So... I never felt like I needed to chase new features after I stopped working with android development, and really, the wild development rush pretty much stopped, but I kept changing phones because I kept breaking them all of a sudden.

i haven't bought a new phone for decade+.

daily driver is a 2013 phone. i do have newer phones i got from family members that stopped using them, but to me they're less comfortable than my old phone. gonna keep it till it breaks or Y2038 hits

Normally I keep a phone until severe hardware failure (spicy pillow, broken digitizer, not charging...)

The only thing that has gotten me to upgrade was the Boox Palma 2 Pro for it's e-ink display specifically, due to eyestrain from reading on LCD, and my Galaxy A23 5G i received as a gift having its display start falling out (and fear of future storage/ram prices)

(technically almost a phone due SIMs only being supported for mobile data, but i use a flip phone for SIM-based calls/sms anyway)

My smartphone progression was as follows
- Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini (Don't remember when I got this one. I wish companies still made phones this small...)
- Huawei P9 Lite (Bought in 2016 I think)
- Xiaomi Mi 9T (Bought in 2019)
- Google Pixel 7 (Bought in 2023)

So far, none of my phones had to be replaced due to hardware failure or damage luckily. The S3 Mini simply got too old. When I upgraded, it could not even play a Youtube video in the app without lagging due to severe RAM limitations. I remember having a screenshot of the RAM usage that said I had less than a MiB of RAM remaining at some point.

My P9 lite was fine. At some point my grandmother decided she wanted a smartphone though and instead of buying a new one for herself she told me to upgrade and give her the old one. When that one got to slow for her, the cycle repeated with me giving her my Xiaomi Mi 9T and upgrading to the Pixel 7 which I use to this day.

I have a phone in my house that is bordering on ten years, I believe. Still useable.

I have another that is reaching six years old.

The one I'm personally using currently is reaching three and will replace one of those I previously mentioned.

I intend to get a de-googled phone soon and expect that to last at least eight years.

i swear the apple v android articles are fodder pumped out by media companies because it’s easy ad money.

don’t get me wrong, conspicuous consumption has ruined some people’s ability to own their identity but outside of brand fanaticism surely “normal” customers purchase phones based on when they need it. When do you buy bread? Typically when you want to eat something which has bread.

perhaps not the point of the original question but surely we’re getting beyond the point of being baited by low-quality online content.

I will use it until it stops being viable. This used to mean "until the battery dies", but I've also swapped batteries in phones not designed for it, and still had to get a new one as the batteries available weren't OEM and so bad they basically didn't work despite being new. Like phone always just turns off at like 40% charge. That isn't "viable" in my eyes.

Now I've got a Fairphone 5. It's only been a few years, but I'm planning on 10+ years if I can make it happen. In theory some new feature could get me to buy one sooner, but I highly doubt it. Hasn't happened in the past either.

Used to buy one every two years or so, either to upgrade or they had failed in some way. Used to spend $1000+ on them too, which is ridiculous looking back with how often they broke.

Had a $2000 phone stop charging and they refused to service it without a huge fee and shipping it oversees. (Asus for anyone wondering. I've fully gone off the brand since then. Very overpriced with terrible customer service.)

I was waiting for a call back after a job interview so I went and bought whatever cheap phone I could get and ended up with an oppo. That was in 2019 and it's still going perfectly fine. Phones haven't innovated at all since then and with how much they cost I kind of just don't care to upgrade.

Current phone is just shy of 4 years old. I have no intention of changing it. I've been looking after the battery, trying to keep it in the 80% to 20% range with the occasional full charge so it's still going strong.

Last one I got 5 years out of.

5 years the last one.

The hardware, including battery, worked great. But it has been lacking updates for some years and I'm worried about vulnerabilities. LineageOS was also not available for this phone.

I bought a phone with 7 years updates and my initial intention is keeping it for 7 years. More if an stable and secure version of LineageOS is available down the line.

5 years for the last one, hopefully much longer with this one.

Last one was an iPhone 13, but the battery was shot. I wanted to get out of bit techs grasp, so I gave that phone away and bought a Fairphone 6 and put e/os on it.

As long as possible.

Either it dies, or the battery does and there's no longer replacements available; or, the manufacturer stops updating it and a there's no support for a third party OS.

I'm on my 18th phone in 29 years.

I worked in app development for half that time, so there was a strong incentive to be on the latest if there were any new innovations to support.

I kept my last phone maybe 5 years. I replaced it because my bank's app no longer supported the old Android version and the mfg no longer provided updates.

I replaced it with a !LineageOS@lemmy.ml device because I decided not getting updates was a deal breaker.

When it dies or becomes obsolete (~5 years)

I think it's a tech fanboys rather than Apple fanboys that change it every year : one can observe the same modus operandi for Samsung.

Most Apple users will keep their device for a while, just as most android users. Those that change tend to value peer recognition above eveything else and having the latest gadget is a way to achieve that goal.

Had my last smartphone, Honor 20, for 6 years, it didn't get any safety updates for the last 3.. Bought a refurbished iPhone 2 years ago, I will either use that until the safety updates stop or until I ragequit myself out of the modern society. Whichever happens sooner, following the ID laws and all.

But my main phone is a dumb Nokia I found from the trash. I don't see it breaking and they do sell aftermarket batteries still, so no issues. Can call mom and so on.

Still using my OP8T (kebab) from 2020. 6 years strong with LineageOS.

I'll wait till I leave the USA to swap to a new phone, just one more year...