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What will make you upgrade to a newer phone?

  • No reason needed, I upgrade to the latest every year

    Votes: 33 12.0%
  • When my current phone breaks

    Votes: 35 12.7%
  • I’m running out of local storage

    Votes: 3 1.1%
  • My current phone is no longer supported

    Votes: 43 15.6%
  • When I give my phone to other family member

    Votes: 12 4.4%
  • Cameras, I need that 8k pro res Dolby vision etc

    Votes: 26 9.5%
  • When my phone’s battery is no longer sufficient

    Votes: 37 13.5%
  • Whenever there’s a new design/form factor

    Votes: 42 15.3%
  • My current phone is getting too slow for me

    Votes: 44 16.0%

  • Total voters
    275
Currently 13 Pro Max coming from a XS.

I’ve been a 3 year minimum upgrader for a while now, can only see it getting longer now. I try to use my phone as little as possible, lions share of usage is essential life stuff, podcasts and Kindle when I don’t have e-ink Kindle with me.

I even seriously considered a dumb phone like a Punkt for a bit, but rather than simplifying my life, pfft, causes more issues than it solves. Id be absent a podcast player, never mind the minimal but essential work and life stuff that Id have to solve with other gadgets. I just resolved to get my screen time down to less than 60 minutes a day or so (excluding Kindle) and I’ve stuck to it.

Plus, in my deep dive into finding an actual decent, stable borderline dumb phone with reasonable messaging services I realised - they don’t exist.

Main reason I upgraded from XS is that I wanted the bigger 120hz screen, and delighted that battery life is absolutely epic for my usage. Rarely go below 60%-70% which is great as when the big iOS updates come, and the battery ages, the worse that’s going to happen is maybe down to 50% end of day?

/shrug
 
Went from a 12 to a 13 Pro because it was a $100 upgrade with a trade-in promo (and I got the 12 for $400). If there’s a similar promo, I’ll upgrade my 13 to a 14.

The other reason to upgrade would be a 10x optical zoom and larger camera sensor.
 
Any significant enough change in camera quality plus speed. I have a xs max and my wife’s 13 pro’s cinematic mode is almost enough for me… with kids and the memories it provides to have beautiful photos and videos, I am almost ready to upgrade. For what it’s worth, she replaced a 7+ we got for the same reason and it was all about the camera when our first child was born. Unless there is a significant change this time, I hope to last one more cycle…
 
If I can have an iPhone without a notch (does not exist) and with 120Hz display (so in the Pro line), I don't think I will ever need to upgrade anymore.
 
I'm sticking with my iPhone 13 Pro for the long haul. From 2010 to last fall I would upgrade my iPhone on a regular basis. My interest in continuing that pattern going forward is basically non-existent at this point. It's just feeling pointless with how much smartphones have matured. And to be honest, I have never taken full advantage of the hardware's capabilities myself. I'm also personally at a point where I can't think of anything else that would make my day-to-day experience better. Plus the notch is a non-issue for me.

Reading other responses on here, it totally makes sense why regular upgrades are necessary for power users, though. Also makes sense for people who are looking forward to USB-C on iPhone.

Either way I enjoy reading about the new advancements.
 
I’m torn between when my current phone is too slow and when my current phone breaks. I voted the former. I’ve felt that we reached peaked smartphone a long time ago. My previous phone, a Nexus 6P, I used for 5 years. And I bought it used, to boot.

As long as it runs my day to day tasks and the camera is good (doesn’t have to be the best, just solid), then I see no reason for another phone. Because let’s face it — when it really comes right to it, newer phones can’t do anything that the older phones can’t.
 
I’m torn between when my current phone is too slow and when my current phone breaks. I voted the former. I’ve felt that we reached peaked smartphone a long time ago. My previous phone, a Nexus 6P, I used for 5 years. And I bought it used, to boot.

As long as it runs my day to day tasks and the camera is good (doesn’t have to be the best, just solid), then I see no reason for another phone. Because let’s face it — when it really comes right to it, newer phones can’t do anything that the older phones can’t.
Actually sometimes they can, but what bothers me is I'm sure Apple has stuff stacked up that Android has had forever, and only brings one of two out a cycle, taunting 'look at me' to get people to upgrade. Android has had AoD and Under Screen Touch ID for years. Just wish there was any consistency and longevity with Android Software Updates. If Apple says iOS ##.## is coming out on MM/DD/YYYY, it's coming out barring the world exploding or getting eaten by the sun. Even when I had Galaxy8 right after launch, it was Oreo Coming Soon(TM) for months. Even the security updates were slacking horribly
 
L
I’m really feeling we are at peak smartphone. Take my S21. I really don’t see anything in the near future that would make me want to upgrade, especially since I have the 256GB model, so plenty of storage still. And I’m only planning to upgrade my iPhone 7 Plus mainly because Apple dropped it from ios16. Performance used to be a reason, but imo nowadays it’s only edge cases where people upgrade due to performance.

Seeing at lay consumers, most generally tend to upgrade when their battery life is getting too short and/or they’re running out of storage space. Some will upgrade when their phone breaks (regardless of length of time of ownership).

What about you guys? What would be your reason to upgrade to any newer phone from your current one?
Curious as to what makes you think that we have reached the peak of the smartphone? 🤔
 
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The reasons I've upgraded was because the battery life was reduced. Latest gen of Iphone though the battery has been excellent. Iphone 13 Pro I purchased last Sept. Still shows 100% max capacity battery health. So barring an accidental breakage I can wait till my battery starts degrading.
 
I used to be an upgrade every year or two user. Once I got the XR it blew me away with how capable the phone was for the price and I've kept it since launch day. It still works flawlessly except for the battery capacity is down to 81%, so battery is my main reason for upgrading in this next iphone cycle. Hoping for a discount on 13 minis.
 
I’m now on a 2 year upgrade cycle, so in order to make me upgrade yearly again, the phone have to be better than the previous year. So far I haven’t been moved to upgrade every year since the 12 Pro Max launched.
 
A combination of my current iPhone‘s health/performance vs what the new offering is and maybe trade in value. I previously upgraded yearly until ipx.
Now seems about 2-3 years.
 
I'm in the "when something makes me" camp. Knock on wood, I haven't dropped it or otherwise shattered it.

Other than that, it's not one thing. I upgraded from a 7 to a 12 Pro when my second battery started to poop out, AND I started scraping my head against 128GB, and I knew that the 7 would go on the vintage list relatively soon. If I'd have had a solution for the 128GB, I probably would have held out another year. But four years seems like it's a reasonable tradeoff of financial investment, learning curve and feature starvation. I'm on the 12 Pro now and it's hard to see why I'd go to a 14. I have plenty of storage for now, I can replace the battery at least once and maybe twice, and the 12 Pro won't go on the vintage list for quite some time. New cameras aren't like to get me to upgrade as I have "real" cameras for serious photography and the 12 Pro is way, WAY good enough for anything short of a photographic assignment.

I can afford to upgrade more often, I just don't see the point of doing so. If there were some new feature that would solve a real-world problem, I can upgrade when I see it. For example, if a new phone showed up that could actually function as a 3D scanner using a better LiDAR, I can and would use that. Instant upgrade.
 
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