Poll results: Let no smartphone be upgraded prematurely

Sure, you probably check your phone first thing in the morning, and occasionally drift off to sleep staring into its comforting glow, but how attached are you to it, really? Is it just the best tool available at the moment for getting the job done, or is there something special about it that makes it “yours?” And when the shiny new phones show up on the block, how tempted are you going to feel to leave your old phone behind for the new hotness? We recently put that question to you, our readers, and the results are now in.

Choosing when to upgrade to a new phone has always been about striking a balance. That’s not just about feeling like you got the most value out of your old phone, but also making a new purchase that hits the sweet spot on the price/features curve. And with something bigger and better always just over the horizon, it can be tough to know when to pull that trigger.

Further complicating the issue, phones today can get very expensive, and not everyone can even afford to upgrade to something like the latest foldable model every year. And then we’ve got manufacturers adding years and years to their support promises, making it possible to hold onto a smartphone for longer than ever while still running safe, modern software.  All that taken into account, let’s see what you’re thinking about upgrades:

How often do you upgrade your phone?

As should almost certainly not surprise us, “waiting” is the name of the game; less than 6% of you are into the yearly update cycle. Looking into the comments we learn a little about what’s motivating your decisions, and you share feelings of not being particularly enthused about new feature developments — not many of you are buying new phones because of any AI functionality. Instead, you express more practical concerns, like caring that your battery still charges, and that you can still run all the apps you want to.

It’s worth comparing these results to a very similar poll we ran back in late 2019, when the smartphone landscape looked a bit different. Back then, over 10% of you expressed plans to upgrade to a new phone every year (if not more frequently). Those in the 2–3 year camp made up almost 59% of the share back then, but easily the most pronounced shift concerns keeping phones for 4 years or more. While over 31% of you are in it for the long haul now, in 2019 that number was just 9.6%.

Like we mentioned, there are a lot of factors contributing to why it makes perfect sense now to keep phones longer than ever, and seeing consumer behaviors change in response to them is exactly what we should expect to find. Sure, maybe we thought there’d be a few more of you enthusiasts living out on the bleeding edge, but these results are overall very reasonable.