Consumers however are at the heart of an unhealthy culture of frequent device upgrades

Yes, blame it on the consumer and not on the companies that spend an incredible amount of money to first hire marketeers that think all day long of the best way to push 'new' products, and then run costly campaigns to spread the word.

Ok but first manufacturers must "rethink" planned obsolescence and right to repair

Reduce. Repair. Recycle.

Most phones, break this at every step.

maybe it's my personality or i'm old but i keep my things (including tech) until they become unusable. i've never thought about upgrading my phone every couple of years. i kept my last phone for 6 years (it became a brick), my current phone is from 2018.

Legalize Right To Repair Ban Planned Obsolescence

Boom, solved the problem. But once again it's easier to shame Joe Q. Public than hold the real criminals accountable.

It’s impossible if the vendors stop shipping os updates. I can’t use an out of date phone for my works 2fa push. Kept my phone for 5 years and it was still going, but the planned obsolescence got me.

Smartphones have been "good enough" for a while now. Enough power and battery to do all the things needed for enough time before running out of battery.

IMHO there are 2 reasons we still regularly upgrade.

1. "Obsolescence" wether it would be perceived new hardware features or just new software not being available
2. Use/breakage (I include batteries dying in that) with no reasonable way to replace parts

I've had a few phones over the years some of them I "legitimately" just broke (one had a cracked mb after a bike accident) I broke my second to last phone trying to replace the battery (thought I would be able to, broke the screen). The fact that everything is glued down and made to not be replaceable irked me so much that my current phone is a Fairphone. Replacing the battery takes 1 minute and requires no tools. Replacing the screen takes like 5 min and 8 screws. I plan on using this phone for at least 5 years more if possible. But I understand not everybody can shell out 600 dollars for an "OK" phone.

If only new batteries were easily swappable...

It’s good practice to buy at least one or two new smartphones per year.

The fairphone and terracube are starting to take off. Being able to replace hardware was a staple in early cell phone design and hopefully will come back.

I only upgrade when my phone literally dies or can’t support criticial software and security updates anymore. I upgraded from an iphone 6s to a 12 Pro Max 2 years ago and will probably hold on to this phone until it’s no longer supported.

Sure, let's blame consumer for corporate policies

Phones have to easily repairable before you can blame consumers for upgrading. Cell phones are pretty essential for modern life and most of us don’t want to be without them for long. The upgrade allows for people to not have to worry about what to do when something out of warranty breaks. It is like fixing your car. In warranty, the manufacturer or dealer takes care of things. Out of warranty, you have to find a repair shop. Finding a repair shop is difficult. Trying to get a second or third quote on a broken car is difficult and costly.

The alternative is to make repair shops have transparent prices and make it easy for them to get oem parts. The other option is to force companies to warranty their phones for longer. Until the government does one of those you can’t blame consumers.

At work my manager still rocks an old Motorola g5 plus. He says phones have reached peak performance and there's no point of upgrading. Hes a humble, down to earth guy also make $210k/ year.

gosh, I love my Fairphone.

First and foremost, don't feel pressured to get a new hand tablet with a ten-lense DSLR stapled to the front every single year.

I know Straits only used a picture of an iPhone to get more clicks, but Apple is the least of the offenders when it comes to this. iOS 17 runs on phones released six years ago (including the last iPod touch!), and security updates go a couple years further back than that. I wish Android phones could guarantee that kind of lifespan.

Battery replacement sucks on every smartphone except for obscure modular phones that suddenly lose support or the company goes out of business. But the newest iPhone actually makes it easier to replace the battery (read: still sucks a bit). So, while you have to jump through hoops, you can replace the battery on every smartphone (usually through official channels, but also by other means if needed).

What needs to happen is the masses need to be taught that it's okay to keep your phone for a few years. Phones need to regarded like cars. Drive it until you can't, THEN get a new car. And when you do, consider a newer used car. Once that becomes commonplace, then companies will be forced to tone down their release schedules.

Dawg, I only upgrade phones and laptops once every 8 years or so. These things are EXPENSIVE, I can't afford one more often than that.

My current tablet came out in 2014, that's when I got it. It'll be a decade old in just a few months.

Besides swapping the battery out twice over the years, it still works great and does everything I need it to do. Fantastic big AMOLED display, too.

problem is planned obselescence.. dont buy it? fine.. a few more years we will do it for you to by dropping support for the one you are using

I keep seeing the complaints, but do enough people actually upgrade yearly? Because anecdotally (including online communities in this) I have seen most people claim that they only upgrade every 3-5 years and I think that's sensible as an upgrade cycle and will only get longer now if my own feelings match the general populace.

I personally have found myself needing an upgrade every 3 years on average and think I'll find a way to go longer with phones which don't lose security updates around the exact time the battery starts swelling on my old phone (my previous reason for upgrading and seems to be happening again)

I dunno, my phone's always start to have issues if I keep them too long. Boot loops, frequent crashing, random resets, functionality failing to work as it did when new, lack of security updates, etc. The hardware is built to fail

Just don't buy a fucking new phone every couple years

Have a Note 10+

Screen needs replacing : $450 + tax (cdn) Only one more year of security updates

Bought a "renewed" s23 for $700. I didn't want to but it didn't make sense to sink so much into the old phone even though it worked fine. It pained me to give up the SD card slot...

I would probably still be using my Pixel 2XL if the battery didn't die. Or a Nexus 6P if that didn't die from the hardware defect they got sued for. Probably even the OnePlus One before that too, but that may be a bit old for daily use

And here I am with my S4 running lineage Os (android 11)

Phone is on its third battery but doing fine, and does everything I want it to.