How much life do expect to get out of your cell phone?

When I see long line ups outside of stores people waiting to get the next new phone, I just shake my head be a very cold day before I waited in some huge line just to be one of the first to get the next best cell phone.
My phone is just over 3 years old still works great and have no plans on up dating any time soon.

I’m using a Moto Razr. The original thick model.
This is a replacement that I bought used. I’m hoping it lasts longer than my original Razr. My first one, that I got free/new, only lasted 6–7 years, but I was younger then, and more devil-may-care.

:-)

I usually have mine 3–4 years, which probably means I overpay for them, because so far the payment has been in my monthly bill.

@JLeslie Are they worn out in that time, or do you just want the next best thing?

I always expect them to last forever. Every time.

@SQUEEKY2 It’s usually still working, but the technology has usually improved or the phone has changed, and so I finally give in after a while, and spend the money on a new one. Last time, my husband really wanted to change to iPhone, so we finally did. I really didn’t like how small iPhone was or the idea of typing on the screen, but I bought the iPhone also. Now, iPhone is bigger finally, and I really still want a bigger phone.

Mind you, I’m only on my second iPhone right now.

I still have an old big fat TV from back in the day, my music equipment is a good 15–20 years old. If it still works I usually don’t change it. I’m too fragile, and I hate the waste and the full land fills. Thing is, when I bought this phone I was far from in love with it.

18 months on mine, probably another 18 months to go before it gets technologically obsolete.

Nexus 6 – best phone made.

What part of the technology is becoming obsolete that you can’t use the phone, @elbanditoroso ??

@SQUEEKY2 – hard to know until it happens. It may be that the next version of Android will need more memory than my phone currently has available. It may be that I will want to use some new feature that hasn’t yet been released. It’s hard to know what will be coming in a year.

Funny you should ask. You’ve just hit on one of my pet peeves. Don’t bother reading this, it’s just a therapeutic rant.

I’m not into cell phones at all. They are like electronic dog leashes. People can reach you anywhere no matter what you are doing and they get pissed if you do the sane thing and turn it off. Ridiculous age we live in.

But I am into the internet. I had a Razr like @bstubro from about 2005 to 2012 and it slipped overboard. I replaced it a year later with a 3G. I liked being able to access the net if necessary. The salt got to it after a year of sailing. I replaced that with another 4G. The salt got to it after a year of sailing. I got another and it weathered the salt from 2014 until a couple of months ago when I came to live ashore and needed an internet connection. I found an outfit that offered “unlimited” internet (bullshit) access for $60 per month, no contract, that would allow my phone to be a mobile hotspot out way here. The alternative would be to buy into the whole TV package/hardline/home wifi thing on a two-year contract.

So, when I went in to get my old 4G activated on this new plan, the guy told me they don’t activate that particular phone anymore and gave me another, albeit better 4G free for going with them. No contract, just 60 per month, free new phone with trade-in. Not bad. But it is hardly “unlimited”. It’s fucking 10GB per month which, when I get busy, I can eat up in a couple of hours, which is how I found out what their definition of “unlimited” internet is.

I remind them constantly that they lied to me and as soon as I find an outfit that will give me 10GB and 1 byte for the same price, or 10GB for $59.99, I’m out. Sadly, it’s the best deal on the island, but they lied—unnecessarily, because I wouldn’t have had any choice but to go with them anyway. But I won’t let go of it. I rarely get blind sided, it’s insulting, and it pisses me off.

I’m sure the guy at the store hates my guts. I’m a real pain in the ass to him. I won’t let liars draw on my account, so I go in and pay at the store on the same day every month and he has to ask if I’d like the convenience of letting them draw on my account and my answer always is “No, I would be crazy to let liars have access to my accounts —Hell, you’d have to be crazy to let liars access your accounts.” And then I remind him what the rest of the world’s definition of “unlimited” is. The 16th of the month is not a good day for him. I want him to always remember that he works for liars.

And that’s my phone rant, goddammit.

I have a love-hate relationship with mine. I see it first and foremost as a connection point to the internet. Second, it is a tool box of devices such as GPS, scientific calculator, media player, note taker, etc…etc.. My least used feature is actually the phone part. I love the fact that it has allowed me to carry a ridiculous amount of utility around with me and it has truly become a necessity. They last me quite a while when taken care of but I’ll trade up when the technology has stepped up a few notches. I trade every couple of years on average. I hate that it’s a surveillance device and is a stepping stone into a complete loss of privacy. I’m more or less on call 24X7 if anything happens at work and I also keep the e-mail onslaught at a minimum by keeping up with things after hours.

@Espiritus_Corvus Believe or not I quite dislike cell phones as well have a 3G LG flip and it works great for what I want, but I only use my cell for talking storing numbers and voice mail, and you know, the same as you can go days with it OFF,I never drive with it on,people get pissed at me saying they can’t get in touch with me well there is always voice mail, if I didn’t need it for work I probably wouldn’t even have a cell phone.

Roger that, Squeeky.

I like a three year lifespan. By that point the technology is sufficiently advanced that it’s time to upgrade anyway, especially since I’m not an “early adopter”. I use prepaid phones, which means the tech is usually 2 years behind or so by the time I get it.

I bought an HTC Evo V 4G, which was released in mid-2011 as the Evo 3D, in late 2012. It died the middle of last year. I bought a Nokia Lumia which I hated, and have since cast it aside in favor of a Moto E.

Generally 2–3 years, partly because lithium-ion batteries naturally degrade over time and partly because, being a computer, it will become less relevant after a couple of years. Those who expect their phones to last much over five years are likely to prefer dumbphones, and may well be running a Pentium II in their home PC. That’s not to say dumbphones don’t have their uses; I keep a decade-old Nokia around as a spare. But I don’t view them like they are cars that should still be running long enough to hand to your grandchildren either.

I view them as something that evolves quickly enough that you really should plan on upgrading about every 3 years unless your needs are so modest that they could be met with technology from decades ago. My ‘86 Corolla can still drive just as fast as it did 30 years ago and still gets ~30 MPG so it’s fine, but try streaming HD video on a C-64 and you’ll quickly see that demands on computers have risen far faster than the demands on cars. To my mind, those who think otherwise are no different from people driving 35 MPH in the left lane of the interstate trying to talk their way out of a ticket for obstructing traffic.

But it seems that despite cellphones being out for decades, a lot of people still think they should have the lifespan of an old wall/desk-mounted landline phone. A lot of people (damn near everyone I know over the age of 45) also fail to realize that cellphones are for their convenience rather than the convenience of others, so I suspect that like many other tech things, opinions on this will vary by age bracket.

@Espiritus_Corvus It’s not lying if there is an asterisk leading to fine print just because you didn’t read that fine print before you signed, so caveat emptor. Truth is, just about anything over 4GB/mth is considered “unlimited” since that’s more than double the ~1.8GB/mth most people use for normal things like a little Facebooking, using the GPS to check traffic on your commute, and maybe an hour a day of streaming audio.

I keep them about 4 years or when the battery begins to fail – whichever is longer. My Casio Ravine II is 5+ years old and still lasts me 3 -4 days between charging.

Every day I wait, the phones out there get better and better. When I finally decide to upgrade my new one will have Smellovison and IndigoTooth Haptic feedback – for porn.

My Dad used to say “This is the last car I will ever buy.” He was always wrong – until he was right.

Since most companies make you sign a two year contract,it is only fitting that the phones last roughly two years.

I paid $14 for for my little flip phone and have dropped it a dozen times and it just keeps going. I have another one for a spare. It’ll probably last until the technology is too old. That’s what happened with my last one (Motorola Razr flip). I do not use a smart phone. I only use my cell in the car when I’m away from home. I use landlines in my home and office. I can not imagine a circumstance that would make me rethink any of that. No gadget is part of a life. My life goes full force…...........no batteries required.

Things I use my phone for:

Email
Facebook
Fluther
Texting
Shopping
Research
Solving the “who’s that actor?” mystery
A credit card machine
Managing my PayPal account
Managing my bank account
Playing games
Directions to anywhere I need to go
Suggestions on where to go for dinner or out with my family
Coupons for the craft store
Organizing my grocery list
Listening to music in the car
Reading ebooks and audiobooks

Things I almost never use my phone for:
Making phone calls.

A dumb phone would be useless to me.

Things I use my cell for…
Talking to people
Storing phone number of people that I TALK to.
voice mail Thats it I guess that is why they call it a phone.
and not a mini computer that I never would use anyways .

Prior to getting a smart phone, I didn’t want one because I felt like once I had the luxury, I’d get addicted.

Once I got a smart phone, I used it only for photos. Then I tried Facebooking on it and found that to be a lovely diversion when I was out and looking to kill time. Then I got an upgraded phone and started googling things. Now it is really something I couldn’t do without on a long term basis. Everything from what are the hours of a store to what’s playing at the movies to store coupons to googling topics of interest that I discuss with friends face to face. Texting is a convenient way to communicate and I do that, too. If I’m out I’ll check FB and Fluther. (When I’m home, I prefer the computer to the phone) Maybe two to three phone calls on an average day is what I do as far as function of an actual phone.

I expect two years. That is pretty standard for many people I know as well. Granted my last phone’s battery started to really lose its power after about 20 months, but it was still functional for 2 years. Things like that are designed to be replaced regularly, however.

I’ve had my Galaxy Note 3 for two and a half years now and it does brilliantly everything I want a mobile device to do. I won’t replace it unless I have to. It costs me around £5:00 a month.

I guess part of my answer should have been that I carry an old “basic” flip phone with a QWERTY keyboard, and I use it mainly for texting and occasionally for phone calls, almost exclusively with family members. At home I still use a land line. I don’t want or need an iPhone for any purpose at all. Don’t want to access the Internet from anywhere but home, don’t intend to carry photos around with me to inflict on people, and don’t want to buy or pay for anything with an electronic device in my pocket.

Don’t worry, young’uns, my generation won’t last a whole lot longer.