I mean, most of the population isn't buying a new phone every year, it's just that there are enough people using phones in general that at any given time there are people buying new models. It's the same reason why there are people buying cars every year.

I personally use my phones for about 3 years. Sometimes up to 4, but usually year 3-4 is when the battery degradation gets so horribly bad and performance stutters so much that I figure if I'm going to do a full reset and buy a new battery and all that, I might as well get a new phone.

The world around you uses Instagram daily. They do need a better camera and all the AI photo enhancement filters. Plus, consumerism, you know.

Other than that, there's no technical reason to buy anything better than what flafhsips were a few years back. I have one and it's constantly underutilized.

I mean, maybe 5G or wifi 6 could be a reason to migrate.

It used to be that a new phone came with a relatively substantial new feature set. People have become accustomed to this and businesses have been built around this. At this point, it’s mostly about consumerism.

I’m still rocking an iPhone 12 Mini without the slightest hiccup as well as an original iPhone SE as my main music player. I used to be the person who got every new phone because there used to be such a jump in performance and hardware features. Now I have no reason to upgrade at all. Honestly, I’d love to get rid of my phone all together and just use an iPad, Apple Watch, and my camera and journal.

I buy used flagships.

A 1.5 year old flagship costs the same as a brand new midrange phone, but is significantly better.

I just got a S21 Ultra for cheaper than I would have paid for an A54. (Also Exynos is hot fucking garbage. I wanted to get away from Samsung altogether, but the price on this made sense and I has a snapdragon. Significantly better)

Because they welded the one consumable that needs replacement to force you to buy new every few years: the battery

I agree. I only replace my phone when it stops working.

Battery life is decent for 3-4+ years nowadays.

My number one reason: battery life

The big reason is updates. Phones will only get Android and security updates for so long. After that point, you buy a new phone or run the risk of being exposed.

The only real issue are updates. After just 3 years my previous phone didn't get any security updates and I had to get new hardware. I actually liked my previous phone more than my current one. But it is how it is.

I was at work last week and two colleagues loaded on an apple update to their phones. Their phones slowed to a crawl and lost battery charge quickly through the day. The next thing I saw was one of them with the internet browser open putting his credit card details in to buy a new iPhone £650 gone just like that. iPhone users wouldn't balk at expensive contracts or spending £600 quid on a new iPhone. It seems to me apple deliberately trash their phones and users accept it and upgrade to a newer model. I could understand if it was a cheap phone but jeeze crazy money for something with such a short lifespan. Would you buy a ln expensive TV if you thought it wouldn't last you any more than a couple of years?

Vanity, marketing and buying shit unnecessarily.

I have a Fairphone 3 that I got in January 2020. Its a great device. I want to using it daily for between 5 to 10 years. And I have no doubt it will do that.

Meanwhile my brother has bought 3 Samsung devices in that time. And each one still works fine. He doesn't need a new phone each time but he will still insist on it.

There are people that like new things, there are people who prefer older things. I am willing to spend money on a new phone every 2 years because it is my main computing device. I, also, don’t miss a lot of things of older phones. I never used as SD card, I never replaced a battery, and I haven’t used wired headphones in a decade.

I like my iPhone 14, the LiDAR gives me a ton of cool applications, the camera takes the best photos I’ve ever taken before, it will be kept updated for the next 5 years and the always-on screen is very useful for unlock-free info.

If you trade-in a fairly new phone, you can heavily discount a new phone purchase as well. It’s more like leasing a car vs owning a car. Pay for the time you use the phone, return it while it still has value in the 2nd hand market and get a fresh phone.

On the other hand, my brother sticks his phone in his pocket all day and doesn’t look at it at home. He bought an iPhone SE a few years ago and it just works. He would argue buying a new phone is silly as well. But we use our phones very differently and so our purchase habits will be different.

The main reason to do it is when the manufacturer no longer releases security updates for the phone. Given the security history and the typical corporate attitude of caring little for the customer, I want to minimize the risk posed by not having a very out of date operating system.

I bought a Redmi Note 11 pro last year and it's a great phone! Really though, buying new phones every year is something only well off people can afford (or people who are ok getting into lots of credit card debt). There really is no point right now, newer phones just aren't that much better and in fact smartphone sales worldwide are slowing down exactly because everyone who wants a good enough smartphone already has one. My current phone does absolutely everything I need, in fact it's much more powerful than my first laptop ever was, I can emulate most retro consoles, watch uhd videos, use any app I need, listen to all the music I want, I can even do things like use microsoft office on it. I don't need a new one, this works just perfect for me. The only thing that would make it better is to get it rooted so I can install a custom rom and get rid of xiaomi's bloatware infested android rom

I feel like when I was younger and phone tech was changing a lot in the early days of the iOS and Android the difference even 1 year made was sometimes huge. Nowadays it’s much more incremental. A slight processor boost here, a couple GB of Ram there. I think a large part as to why that is is two things.

One, the tech has stagnated to some degree. Innovation doesn’t exactly sell a phone to regular non tech folks, a stable “don’t have to think about it” experience is what most people are after.

Two, a lot more issues with the cell phone platform are solved with software rather than throwing around more powerful hardware.

All that being said when I was younger I loved the idea of bleeding edge tech in my pocket, I upgraded all the time. The appeal was more customization at a lesser cost to performance, I wanted all the bells and whistles and less of the jank that came with it. I’m a little older now and lean much more towards the “give me something that works and doesn’t crash for the 10 minutes I have to look at my phone” club.

For those that upgrade to the latest iPhone/Pixel every year no matter what, I chalk that up to lots of expendable funds. It doesn’t appeal to me any more but I can also recognize that there are probably plenty of people out there now, like I was 10 years ago, so it could also be a general interest in the tech and how the bleeding edge keeps pushing for faster, more efficient technology.

I just like new phones 🙈

My iphone is almost 7 years old and still runs great. No problems with the battery, speed is just fine, everything is fine. I paid about $1,000 for it and I'm determined to squeeze every last penny of life out of it. No plans to change until it breaks or becomes unusable somehow.

I finally dropped my S10e too many times. I tried switching to my backup phone which was a Pixel 2 but it is pretty limited in terms of bands for my carrier. So I bought a Pixel 6a. I would love a Zenfone 9 but it is a tad pricey.

Would I have upgraded of my phone hadn't died? Probably. It stopped receiving security updates. The battery was starting to not last all day. There were some things it was starting to get slow on. The camera was okay in good lighting but shit in bad lighting.

Newer phones are not actually selling all that well. Still good but there aren't really likes it the door on release day like there used to be. People are keeping their phones for a lot longer now or opting for midrange ones.

I break them, then buy a new unlocked "last gen" phone cheap to replace it. I am usually one or two versions behind the "newest" phone, but I'm spending less than using carrier based device insurance. Phones have become like sunglasses to me. I don't buy particularly nice ones because I just destroy them.

Performance gains for certain software or games. Especially if you are into emulation then the higher power of newer flagships or better cooling design, mean that you can run more recent games on your phone. Same thing goes with camera lenses, better camera means you can get better shots so if you are into photography it makes sense to upgrade.

Thrift wise, there is never really a reason to upgrade as long as it still texts and makes calls but the non-phone features are why you would upgrade early.

I buy a new phone when my current one breaks. So like every five years.

Lots of people are bad with money or don't prioritize the same things I do. I try not to worry about this. I worry about other unimportant shit like why do people roll for stats in DND 5e.

Been rocking a oneplus 8 for the last two and half years, replaced the back glass a couple times and the battery once. I definitely don't baby my phone, it's a tool meant to be used, but overall am pretty good at not dropping things so I can reckon I'll keep going with it until it gets too slow or something breaks.

When choosing a new phone, I usually go for something new that's one level below the latest flagship, and check to see if LineageOS is being developed for it, as then I know it's likely to receive software updates for long after I've moved on to the next.

Thing is, I like, many people here, am a techie, and I'm not afraid to install custom ROMs and open up my phone for repair. The majority of people don't want that, so I'm really looking forward to the upcoming EU regulation on user replaceable batteries! Then it's possible for everyone to keep their phone for longer.

The only feature that motivated me to upgrade to my latest phone was a much better camera and I wanted that for traveling.

Your carries never gives it to you cheap. At best they sell you it at cost. More likely they sell it to you at MSRP. the cost is wrapped up in your monthly, and they hope people are too stupid or lazy to notice.

I bought an unlocked Pixel 6 near launch on sale and intend to use it until security updates cease (five years from launch).

In Canada, for years, you were almost a fool for not upgrading your device every two years. The "regular" plans we all had involved a 2-yr contract in which time your phone would be paid off. But after that term was up, the monthly bill remained exactly the same. It was stupid, but a lot of Canadians just said, "Welp. Might as well upgrade then." Then the CRTC here stepped up and told the big three carriers here to knock it off.

I had a Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ that I held onto for three and a half years. That was the longest I'd ever kept a smartphone. It was going strong too. Alas, I found out security updates were knocked down to quarterly from monthly. And after this year, it would receive nothing more. I reluctantly looked into the Galaxy S23 Ultra as a replacement and thanks to a good deal, I have that phone now. It's an amazing device too and I hope it carries me for another 3+ years.

I had an S10E that I loved. But then I had a baby and wanted better pictures as memories. So I upgraded the camera I had on me at all times, and went for an S22U. Took a while to get used to the huge size difference, but I couldn't be happier.

Also got it 'used' from Facebook marketplace, brand new in its box for almost half price. The guy had it as a free upgrade from his service provider, didn't want to change phones, and wanted some quick cash for it. Had all the paperwork and everything.

Because my simple or brain likes shiny new things.