To ask how often you upgrade your phone?

[thecherryfox]

I used to upgrade my phone every 2 years when my contract ended, but i feel like I have got to the time of maturity where I have a fully working phone with no issues - there’s no need to upgrade it. I have a sim only plan which is up soon and I think I’m just going to extend it instead of getting a new phone. I feel like I’m just going to wait until this phone is in no longer working condition and then get a new phone.

so I guess I’m asking, are you all tech people and get a new phone every couple of years or are you someone who waits until it breaks until you get a new one?

when they break. some lasted 2 years, current one is 7 years old. I am with Giffgaff. no contract. works out loads cheaper

Every 2 years on contract. I work in IT so I like to try to keep up with the technology even though I'm management rather than hands on these days.

Every three or four years, I have a really good contract that is £11 per month so I keep that.

Same here OP. I used to upgrade every two years at the end of the contract. However I don't know whether it is maturity or lack of excitement that has stopped me now. I currently have the iPhone 12 and when the contract ended I just moved to sim only rather than upgrading. The phone is still in perfect condition and so I just couldn't see the point of upgrading. Also, I think upgrading used to be fun - or at least for me, you'd have to manually copy over your contacts and I always used this as an opportunity to cull my contacts list of people I was no longer in regular contact with etc plus setting up the new phone and making it the way I liked it. These days phones are so advanced that when I last upgraded I literally tapped the new phone to the old one and it transferred everything straight over - all my apps laid out exactly as on the old phone. Plus the phones themselves look identical party from the camera placement etc on the back so I just didn't get any joy from it last time. I could barely tell I had a new phone! So I think I'll only upgrade now when this one actually stops working.

Still have my XR that I bought in 2019. It works perfectly fine, does everything I need and I don’t care about impressing anyone with the latest model. I pay less than £8 per month for a SIM only contract with more data than I could possibly need.
Completely pointless to keep upgrading phones when there’s nothing wrong with the one you have. Much better for the planet to keep your phone long term.

I wait until it stops working or gets lost or smashed. My current phone is 4 or 5 years old and still working perfectly, but the Ryanair website won't load on it (incompatible with device) so I am guessing I will be encountering more problems as time goes on.

I replaced my Samsung A5 earlier this year but only because some apps no longer worked on it. It was 7 years old and I felt quite resentful about having to change it.

I bought an iPhone 7 outright in July 2017 (for £630 I think) with a SIM only deal for £5 per month. Replaced the battery twice (£40 a time). Have only recently bought an iPhone 16 and it was mainly because the Google Family link app was no longer updating. So managed to get over 7 years out of the iPhone 7 and plan to do the same with my current phone.

I changed my 2.5 years ago as I felt the camera on my sisters phone took much better photos. I’ll change again when I feel like a phone is significantly better than what I have or my current phone breaks. The phone was circa £1000 so I’d like to have it at least 3.5 years or it doesn’t work out much cheaper than getting a contract if that makes sense!

My previous one I had for about 5-6 years and the battery was awful and the storage space was terrible so upgraded then. This one I will upgrade (or more accurately downgrade to a less fancy phone) as I really don't like it and also I broke the screen and it hasn't worked the same since

When my contract runs out, but I love new tech, if the phone is in good condition I'll sell it to CEX or trade it in.

I have the Samsung S23 ultra at the moment, and I absolutely love the camera (I love taking photos). It's not due for an upgrade for another year so they'll be one with a better camera by then.

When it stops working.

I had an iPhone5 from 2015-2022 that still worked but the battery died. Got a 12 at that point and hopefully it’ll last many more years from now, it’s almost 3 years old and still perfect, and the battery is replaceable on this one so might last even longer.

I wonder if a lot of people see the “upgrade your phone for free” and don’t really understand that it’s not infact free at all.

Only when necessary. Just replaced my old one after something like 5 years. It was no longer installing system updates and it got to a point where mobile internet, texts and calls no longer worked, so I could only use it if there was WiFi!

When it breaks. Usually by me smashing the screen and it can't be replaced before any battery or other issues develop. I get a second hand refurbished one on ebay.

When it stops working, or when the screen has smashed too many times to make it worth repairing.

Always bought phones outright myself. Normally from Backmarket, a reconditioned one. Much cheaper than a brand new one and never had any issues.

I used to upgrade every two years when my contract ran out but realized a couple of years ago that I didn't need to do that anymore because I haven't actually smashed my screen for once. I've just taken out a another SIM only deal and I'm hoping this phone lasts at least another two years.

When it breaks.
I have never had a contract phone. I just buy one and pay £6 a month for a Smarty sim

My contract is finally coming to an end so I'm thinking of moving to a sim only contract. A big pro is the money saved of course but any cons?

I recently replaced jist the charging point as it wasn’t charging properly. I think it cost about £30. It had stopped registering the charger and wouldn’t charge at all. I’ve had the phone about 3 years id say. Hopefully good for a couple more?

I'm sim only and buy my handsets outright. Saves so much money compared to a contract. I've had my current iPhone almost 4 years!

I got off the 2 year contract wagon about 18 months ago - I'll replace my phone when it stops being fit for purpose, which I suspect will be when the battery life becomes so short as to be unreliable. My husband replaced his earlier this month after 5 years as the battery had hit the point where it was regularly needing charging in the middle of the day to avoid going flat by the evening.

When it's broken

My contract is finally coming to an end so I'm thinking of moving to a sim only contract. A big pro is the money saved of course but any cons?

None that I can think of. I renew it manually each month rather than have it on auto-renew because the amount of data included in my Giffgaff £10/month package (15 Gb) is way more than I need most months but if I'm going to be away from home for any amount of time in the coming month I'll pay for a package with more data as wifi in trains, hotels, etc., is unreliable.

I’ve been on sim only for as long as I can remember- 20 years ish probably. Can’t think of any cons! For a good price you’re usually tied into a 12/18/24 month contract but that’s the same with any contract.

Actually, I guess you could say a con is that none of your unused data rolls over to the next month.