Your current smartphone and plans to replace it

[Scott5114]

Took me less time to buy a car than buy my cell phone last time around.

There was one year that I bought myself a phone on Black Friday and asked my wife for my Christmas present to be her dealing with AT&T for me.

[signalman]

Google Pixel 3a XL that I bought about 5 years ago. The battery is beginning to degrade and doesn't hold a charge for as long as it used to. This just requires more frequent charging, but I can easily make it over a day without recharging. That being said, I have no plans to replace it. I only bought my current phone because the battery in my previous phone needed constant life support or turned off; making it useless as a mobile phone. No cracked screen thanks to an Otterbox.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Just replaced my iPhone 7 Plus (purchased in 2017) with the iPhone 15 Pro Max at the start of the year.

[Bobby5280]

Current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (512GB of storage, 12GB of RAM). I finished the 2-year payment plan thing for it recently. I wanted to buy the phone outright, but some of the discounts T-Mobile was offering hinged on a 2 year contract. I don't have any plans to replace the phone any time soon. The current S24 Ultra doesn't seem all that different.

My previous phone was a Samsung Note 5. I used that one for 6 years. T-Mobile changed out a bunch of legacy equipment on former Sprint towers in 2022. That meant shutting off Sprint's 3G CDMA network, then the 3G UMTS network and finally Sprint's first-gen LTE network. My old Note 5 would have had very limited coverage if I didn't upgrade. I don't have to worry about that sort of thing happening with my newer phone. At any rate, the Note 5 was really starting to show its age at the 6 year mark. It was time for an upgrade.

[vdeane]

I have a Cricket Outlast with 64 GB in storage and have had it 4 months.  The screen is pristine, but the plastic on the back has a nasty crack.  I wasn't planning to replace it in the foreseeable future, but since I got that crack on the back, I might, as I don't know how to repair it or even if it can.  And given that the reason for the crack was because I got mad and threw it on the floor because the browser was crashing and refusing to sync, maybe it doesn't have enough RAM or got infected with malware or something.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Make, model, and current storage capacity: iPhone 12 Pro 128GB

How long you have had it: Since September 2021, after upgrading from an iPhone XR. My wife and I upgraded upon merging our account with her parents' account to save money for everyone involved (they're in their late 70s).

Is the screen cracked? Shockingly no! I've dropped the phone on concrete a couple of times but was lucky enough not to break it.

Replacement plans and reasons: My last two upgrades before I got my current phone were because of issues with my phones - I had an iPhone 6S whose 4G antenna stopped working, causing the phone to become a brick. It was replaced with an iPhone 7 that ended up having the same issue, which led me to get the XR, which was a fantastic phone (it was a toss-up between that or the Google Pixel 7). I really don't see myself upgrading any time soon unless my phone craps out, though I might consider getting the 15 once the 16 comes out since the camera is so much better.

[Bruce]

A little advice: don't buy the very low-end budget phones, even if new. It's probably not that much cheaper than buying last year's mid-range phone model which will still have better specs and likely have better software/security support in the near future, on top of more documentation for troubleshooting.

I've seen so many family members cycle in and out of budget phones at a near-yearly pace while I'm able to squeeze a lot out of near-flagship phones.

[ZLoth]

IMHO the cell phone industry has matured. I make an analogy to cars.  For decades, if you bought a new car, it was actually better.  Had new things that had not been invented last time.  That isn't true today.  If you buy a new car today, it loses the wear and tear you put on your old one, and it comes with a new warranty, but it isn't really BETTER than the car you bought 5 or 6 years ago.  Same is true today for cell phones.  If I bought a new phone today, there is nothing it can do that my current phone does not do.  And I expect that to be true for at least the next decade or decade and a half.

My 2013 vehicle which I purchased used in 2014 currently has 104.5K miles on it. When I got it, I was looking for Bluetooth to play audio... something that wasn't commonplace in 2006 and before smartphones. The feature that I'm looking for now is Android Auto integration, but it's not a compelling reason to upgrade. In fact, I have no desire to get a new car until my mortgage is paid off, then we'll see.

I don't know about other makes and models, but with the Google Pixel 7 and earlier, you got three years of system updates before it was end-of-support. With the Google Pixel 8, it's now seven years of system support. Of course, every year, the minimum system requirement for app support also keeps moving forward. The challenge is that my personal phone is also how I log into work systems, and they enforce a minimum system requirement. My Pixel 6 Pro will probably get Android 15... and that's it. Plus there is that overheating and possible reception issue that should be improved on on the Pixel 9 Pro. However, my mother also owns a Pixel 6 Pro, and she is going to keep it for now having no compelling reason to upgrade.

As I said before, you are more likely to notice the improvements if you upgrade every three years than every year.

A little advice: don't buy the very low-end budget phones, even if new. It's probably not that much cheaper than buying last year's mid-range phone model which will still have better specs and likely have better software/security support in the near future, on top of more documentation for troubleshooting.

I agree. Low end phone=low end specs. I've had to help a neighbor with her phone, and the amount of on-system memory made it almost impossible to install more that eight apps . Plus, the camera was mediocre at best, plus no NFC for payments. Sure, you "saved" money by buying a cheap phone, but is it really saving if the purchase is an exercise in frustration?

[Scott5114]

I agree. Low end phone=low end specs. I've had to help a neighbor with her phone, and the amount of on-system memory made it almost impossible to install more that eight apps . Plus, the camera was mediocre at best, plus no NFC for payments. Sure, you "saved" money by buying a cheap phone, but is it really saving if the purchase is an exercise in frustration?

Kind of depends on what you use your phone for. I have gotten by with some pretty shitty phones over the years because I do as little on them as possible; I mostly use my phone for texting, bothering people on Discord when I'm out and about, the Washington Post, and YouTube and that's really it. Everything else I still do on my desktop, and I'm not interested in changing that. I wouldn't even really need NFC since the preferred payment method where I live are these green pieces of paper we share around town.

But for someone like my wife who does 100% of her personal computing on the phone, it would make more sense to spend more.

[Road Hog]

I got an iPhone 13 about 14 months ago and it works great. Only issue is, I've accumulated a number of photos over the years and now I've hit my limit and it won't let me back up to the cloud. I deleted a few hundred photos to get under the limit, and it still won't let me back up.

[JayhawkCO]

Current Phone: Samsung S23+, 256 MB
Had It: 2 years now?
Cracked Screen?: Never in 25 years of owning a phone
Replacement: Rumors are that the next Samsung phone will have satellite emergency messaging. As I do a lot of remote hiking/mountain climbing/etc., that's a pretty big deal for me since I won't need a Garmin InReach or similar. If that's confirmed, I'll upgrade.

[7/8]

I'm currently using a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra that I bought around this time last year (right before a trip to Europe). It's my first time having a "flagship" model, which I bought for the camera, and my goal is to keep it for several years.

[wanderer2575]

After being a proud holdout against all smartphones, I bought a Galaxy A12 in January 2022.  I had left my job of 31 years a bit earlier and figured I would need to give in and have a phone for a new job.  I don't use it to take pictures, watch videos, play games, etc. so I don't need the latest and greatest.  The mouthpiece stopped working (I have to use speakerphone for a phone call) and I suppose I should get a new phone, but I can't be bothered with the hassle.

[WillWeaverRVA]

After being a proud holdout against all smartphones, I bought a Galaxy A12 in January 2022.  I had left my job of 31 years a bit earlier and figured I would need to give in and have a phone for a new job.  I don't use it to take pictures, watch videos, play games, etc. so I don't need the latest and greatest.  The mouthpiece stopped working (I have to use speakerphone for a phone call) and I suppose I should get a new phone, but I can't be bothered with the hassle.

I mean, for a budget-type device, the Samsung Galaxy A phones are pretty good.

[algorerhythms]

Mine is the cheapest iPhone that was available from Apple at the time I bought it (an iPhone SE). When it eventually keels over in however long that takes, I'll most likely replace it with whatever the cheapest iPhone that is available from Apple at that time.

[catch22]

Samsung S9+.  Memory is 64GB plus a 256GB SD card.

I've had it about 5 years, give or take.

No screen damage, it's lived in an OtterBox case and holster since new.

Replacement?  Not sure.  It still works fine, but sometime in the future AT&T's expansion of their 5G network will likely force an upgrade to something new but no idea what at this point.

[MikeTheActuary]

Current phone is a Pixel 6 with 128 GB storage, which I got almost 3 years ago when my I discovered that my prior phone's (a Pixel 5) battery was swelling just a few minutes before I went inside an airport to board an international flight.  No screen damage.

Last week, I ordered a replacement phone -- a Pixel 9 Pro with 256GB storage, which should arrive in a couple of weeks.  Battery performance on my Pixel 6 is starting to degrade, and I've started to run into space issues due to the amount of crap I have to have on my phone to be permitted to use it for work calendar/Teams/email.  Also, the performance of the Pixel 6's modem has been frustrating.

I probably could have stuck it out longer, since changes in my job have mostly ended work travel for me, and family developments have cut my non-work travel back to almost nothing....but the combination of promotions and currently-offered trade-in value were enough to tempt me to upgrade now, despite the risk of jumping to a just-released phone model.

I've been using Pixels since a little while after the first one came out because I wanted "stock Android".   A 9 Pro will probably be overkill for my needs -- I would have been fine with a 9 or even an 8a -- but I like my toys, and a delay in shipping the 9 Pros meant I could get the early-adopter incentives but still have the opportunity to cancel the order if early reviews for the models that are shipping highlighted a significant problem.

[Bobby5280]

I got an iPhone 13 about 14 months ago and it works great. Only issue is, I've accumulated a number of photos over the years and now I've hit my limit and it won't let me back up to the cloud. I deleted a few hundred photos to get under the limit, and it still won't let me back up.

Can't you back up the photos on a computer and then maybe move them to an external hard drive or something like that?

I don't have an iPhone, but I do own an older iPad Pro. If I connect it to a PC via the USB-Lightning cable I can see digital camera photos stored on the device. Nothing else shows up in Windows File Explorer though. I can at least copy the images or the dated folders holding the images and paste them into the PC's hard disc or into an attached external hard disc drive. Then I have to go back and manually delete the photos inside the iPad if I want to clear up the space used by them.

It's far easier managing the data on Android phones. I can connect my S22 Ultra to a PC and have full access to the folders on the phone. I can cut photos out of the digital camera DCIM folder or any of the other image folders and then paste the photos in a desired location. No need to go back and manually delete photos. I can easily move data from the PC onto the phone. I do that with a lot of music. My CD collection is pretty big; I ripped all those discs in LPCM WAV format and saved copies in FLAC Lossless and/or high bitrate MP3. PCM audio doesn't support metadata like album cover art and other details being saved into the file. MP3 and FLAC do support those features. Anyway, I have my phone with me when I lift weights; I can't work out without good music playing in my ear buds.

[hbelkins]

Kinda curious, but what is your current smartphone and plans to replace it? List it as follows:

• Make, model, and current storage capacity
• How long you have had it
• Is the screen cracked? 
• Replacement plans and reasons

iPhone SE 2020 (model number MHF83LL/A), 64 gb
Owned two years, bought used/refurbed off a third-party vendor
No screen damage
No plans to replace it. Heck, I'd still be using my old iPhone 6 if I hadn't been forced to upgrade a bunch of apps that no longer run on the latest iOS that the iPhone 6 will run. When the time comes, I'll look for another used/refurbed phone on eBay or Tanga or Groupon or someone like that.

To touch on a couple of other comments upthread:

• Third-party batteries are the way to go. There's a guy locally who will replace an iPhone battery for $35 or so, parts included. No need to get raped at the Apple Store, especially when the phone is out of warranty, and buying a whole new phone because of a bad battery seems excessive.
• As far as backing up photos goes, I don't use the cloud at all. I plug into a computer and back up there. If you don't have a computer, you can buy third-party dongles like the PNY DuoLink and back up your photos to it. I found one (64 GB) at the local Walmart for $20. Of course, I don't have a whole lot of pics on my phone because I still prefer to use a real camera.

[J N Winkler]

Answering the questions in the OP:  Google Pixel 7, 128 GB, purchased January 2023, no screen damage (I have always used OtterBox cases in the 12 years I have had smartphones), no plans to replace until a cornerstone app stops working.

My last phone, a Motorola Droid Turbo, lasted for six years before I needed to have the battery replaced.  UbreakIfix bricked the phone attempting to do so, and gave me a reconditioned replacement whose battery was pretty close to end-of-life.  I would not risk a similar repair again without the capability to image my phone (which involves more than just copying over files) and perform a full restore on the reconditioned like-for-like replacement that repair shops are contractually obliged to provide.

I have personally never been in the position of having to abandon an Android device because a cornerstone app stopped working.  A family member has, though:  he read library books on a Samsung tablet using the Libby app and had to buy a new one earlier this year when Libby updated its encryption to a minimum version the OS could not be upgraded to use.  I have now more or less mothballed my own Samsung tablet--Libby (which I also use) still works on it, but it now self-discharges even when plugged in.

[gonealookin]

Make, model, and current storage capacity:  Samsung Galaxy A14, using 32.7/64 GB
How long you have had it:  Since December 2023.  My Galaxy A21 crapped out while I was on vacation over in Kona, so I ran down to the store and bought one of the cheaper things available as a band-aid solution.
Is the screen cracked?  Nope
Replacement plans and reasons:  Well, it was a cheap band-aid solution to fill an immediate need.  I paid under $300 for the phone plus a protective case.  But, I'm one of those people who doesn't use the phone very much; I have it mostly because American society now insists that you have one, but I do everything on the laptop.  So this phone does everything I need it to do; if it suddenly stops working I'll probably go cheap again with the replacement.  My main complaint is that the battery life sucks.  I agree with those who have said it's worth paying more if you're a heavy user.

[WillWeaverRVA]

• As far as backing up photos goes, I don't use the cloud at all. I plug into a computer and back up there. If you don't have a computer, you can buy third-party dongles like the PNY DuoLink and back up your photos to it. I found one (64 GB) at the local Walmart for $20. Of course, I don't have a whole lot of pics on my phone because I still prefer to use a real camera.

Smart. I've got a SanDisk iXpand USB drive that I use for the same purpose. It's extremely convenient and a bit less annoying than just connecting the phone to my computer.

[Takumi]

iPhone 12 Pro, 128 GB, no damage, not necessarily looking to replace but I keep a lot of music and photos on my phone (I prefer to buy music instead of streaming and you will never change my mind on that) so it generally stays under 10 GB open space as I rotate songs on there and offload older photos onto my laptop, but a day may come where even that's not enough and I may want more storage space.

[fwydriver405]

Make, model, and current storage capacity: iPhone 11 (A2111), 128 GB, currently on iOS 18.0 (22A5350a)

How long you have had it? Since 2 December 2019, 1,735 days as of the writing of this post.

Is the screen cracked? No

Replacement plans and reasons: I had the battery replaced on iPhone 11 on January 15, 2023 before Apple raised their rates for replacement, so I did that as the original battery was starting to degrade after many months of heavy usage. Unfortunately the new battery has also degraded, and it is now at 73% maximum capacity as of this post. iPhone also tends to get warm a lot running certain tasks.

Also have had the 128 GB of storage fill up quickly from shooting a lot of 1080p60 video over the years - the last cleanup of my photo library was to update to the iOS 18.0 beta, I purged out over 35 GB out of the 60 GB that my photos and videos was using to a backup drive. I usually try to keep a 15-20 GB buffer, but at one point I only had like 4 GB remaining.

I usually back up to my computer via the Finder and photos are backed up to an external drive using Image Capture.

Other than the battery and heating issues and storage filling up, the phone still works fine to this day. However, I've been considering upgrading since I'm eligible for one from my carrier to either an iPhone 16 Pro or waiting for a 17 Pro in 2025. I think the next version of iOS, iOS 19 may be the last version for the Apple A13 Bionic Chip devices since the Xs and Xrs are compatible with iOS 18 currently.

[ZLoth]

Replacement plans and reasons: Google 9 Pro 256GB on order with the expected ship date on September 4th. The current Google 6 Pro is about to hit end-of-life with the release of Android 15 "soon", and because of the work-related authentication software that runs on my phone, I must use a non-EOL phone. In addition, the Tensor G4 SoC, a better internal modem, and redesign of the cooling of the phone should help with some of the heat issues I've experienced when driving with Google Maps and playing an audio app when I'm driving. Also, the promotional credit for trading in my current phone helps.

My Google 9 Pro arrived on Wednesday, and I had some issues with carrier activation that required a trip to the carrier Thursday evening to get the phone activated. However, there was some issues with a plan change that was required to get the device trade-in credit. I spent Friday evening making sure that all of the apps were set up correctly and logged in, then went Saturday morning to trade in my old Pixel 6 Pro (with verification) and ensure the plan was updated properly.