Honest question: is anyone actually upgrading their phone anymore?

[Dave96]

My phone is four years old, the battery finally got replaced for a fraction of a new handset, and I realised I have not felt genuine upgrade envy since about 2021. Looking around my house and office, almost everyone is in the same boat, so let us take the temperature properly

The case for holding seems stronger every year. Flagship prices keep climbing, the year on year improvements are cameras you cannot distinguish without a review site and AI features of wildly varying usefulness, and software support windows are now long enough that a phone can legitimately serve six or seven years

The counter arguments deserve a fair hearing too. Batteries do degrade, folding phones are finally maturing into something genuinely different, and if you sell or trade the old one the real annual cost of staying current is lower than the sticker suggests

So, three questions for the board. How old is your current phone, what would a new phone actually have to DO to make you upgrade tomorrow, and has anyone here gone the repair and battery swap route and regretted it?

[Solo Elizabeth]

Five years on the same handset here. The thing that would make me upgrade tomorrow is a battery that lasts two full days, and notably nobody is selling that, they are selling camera bumps

[Octopus40]

Went the battery swap route eighteen months ago, zero regrets, cost me a takeaway and made the phone feel new. The industry hates this one trick

[Red Wrench]

Counter voice, I upgrade every two years on trade in and the real cost works out around a coffee a week. For the hours a day I use it, cheapest tool I own per hour

[Coastal Current]

The coffee a week maths only works if you were going to spend it anyway. That is how they get you

[BadBunny]

Folding phone owner here to report they are past the gimmick stage, reading and maps on the big screen changed how I use the thing. First real upgrade feeling in years

[BrittleQuarry]

And the crease? Be honest with the board

[CrimsonFury]

You stop seeing the crease in a week, same as the notch, same as everything. The human brain is the best feature phones ever shipped

[ShadowPilot83]

My upgrade trigger turned out to be nothing on any spec sheet, it was the charging port physically wearing out. The most honest planned obsolescence there is

[Hydra47]

The long software support windows are the quiet revolution nobody markets properly. Seven years of updates makes the used and refurb market genuinely safe for normal people now

[Neon Grace]

Family tech support person checking in, refurb flagships from two years ago are the correct answer for almost everyone and I will keep saying it at dinners until someone listens