Poll: How long do you keep your Android smartphone before upgrading?

Source: Ara Wagoner / Android Central

Smartphones are useful devices, but they can often be finicky little things. Like any piece of technology, there’s always the possibility that something breaks, or maybe you end up dropping it and shattering your screen. However, there are many reasons why someone might want to replace their smartphone with a new one, and luckily there are many options among the best Android phones.

OEMs aren’t helping much either, as they’ve gotten into the habit of launching more flagships per year, like Samsung, for example, with the Galaxy S21 series earlier this year and the Galaxy Z Fold 3 expected to arrive. in August. . So with that in mind, we want to know how long you usually keep your smartphone before you upgrade to a new one.

Android phones were known to not have a very long lifespan due to the way Android updates were handled. This would cause smartphone buyers to miss out on important security updates attracting new features, forcing them to buy a newer phone. Google Pixel smartphones would often get the most updates, and quickly, but other OEMs almost never did, especially if you had an LG phone. Fortunately, that has changed with companies promising longer software support for their smartphones. And that’s good because frankly not everyone can shell out $ 1,000 every time a new model comes out.

Samsung has pledged its recent phones to have at least four years of software support, while other companies like OPPO have pledged three years. Even LG has pledged to support its devices for three years, despite the company’s withdrawal from the smartphone business. The Pixel 6 is even said to offer five years of software support, pushing iPhone territory further.

Thanks to initiatives like Project Mainline, it’s getting easier and easier to keep your smartphone for longer, especially for those who don’t particularly want the latest and greatest hardware.

And for those of you who get new phones often, you might want to consider donating or recycling your old Android phone.