Cell Phone Upgrades|Pad Patter 8.28

I only get a new one when I start having issues with crashing etc... we had a iPhone 5S for a long time, and last year when we upgraded, I upgraded to the iPhone 8Plus I believe (see I can't even tell you the number).. The newest was ridiculously priced and I compared the camera of the iPhone 8+ to the 10 and the camera for my use was better with the 8+ so that is why I got it. My 5S was just crashing everywhere. I do not do a lot of apps etc. My phone is for calls and photos and checking my FB

 

like @cfile, I only upgrade if a phone stops working. My last update was 2 months ago from a 5s to 6s mainly cause a) I need the phone urgently since it’s my one and only phone connection for employers and b) it’s all I could afford

 

I have never really done the two year cycle thing. I always keep a phone for at least 3 years or until it starts crashing or acting up on me. I hate the new thing with leasing phones. I miss the days when I could pay a discounted price and sign a contract for a couple of years. I've been with the same company for almost 15 years, I'm probably not going anywhere, and I despise monthly payments. The reason I upgrade this last time was because Sprint had this horrible leasing policy that said you pay on the lease for 18 months, then you can pay one price to keep it or keep making the monthly lease payments, none of which go toward the cost of the phone. So even after 2 years, I still had to pay the same price to pay it off. I upgraded because I could get a deal to get a new phone cheaper than what I was paying per month for the old one, and they changed the leasing policy so that after 2 years you could actually own the phone.

Nope, not eyeing anything new. I'll keep this one until it dies.

 

I upgrade every 2 years - but not under that even if the provider says I am due an upgrade. I get the phone with the best camera that I can afford. My ipad is really old now and doesn't hold a charge so I am looking at the Samsung 10 note, which I will use to play my games, read my books and take photos with. I will use it as a replacement laptop and tablet. The last two cycles I have chosen the LG and my sister in law has the Samsung - and her photos seem better than mine quite consistently - but especially in low light.

 

I never want to upgrade at two years... especially now that phones are getting SOOOOO expensive. I usually wait until my phone starts acting up. My last phone I even replaced the battery in it so I could keep it a little longer. That was worth the money to me. I upgraded to the iPhone Xs Max when those came out and it's by far the most money I've spent on a phone before. It was so expensive that I was freaking out about taking it out of my purse for the first few weeks. Now I've gotten over that. Lol. I was super self-conscience about having such an expensive phone too and was embarassed to take it out thinking people would judge me for my stupid expensive phone. Then I started thinking about it and I spent about the same amount of money on my desktop computer but, I bet I use my phone about 400% more of the time, so when I thought about it that way, I quit freaking out so much! When I did upgrade, my other phone was 4 years old, so I guess I skipped one two year upgrade cycle.

 

I got a Galaxy S10 May 31. It replaced my Galaxy S5. So you can see that I do not upgrade every 2 years. I do not take a lot of photos with my phone but I was still running out of space and it was having times where it wouldn't notify me if I had an email or text message. Only way to get it to work again was to restart. About every other day. Time to get a new one.

Now, I did outright buy the new one because with my history of phones I will keep it at least 3 years. I had my S5 for 4 years. Before that I had an S3 at least 3 years (got the S5 when the S6 came out). And, I had a Motorola Droid before that over 2 years.

So I'm good for awhile.

 

I still have the second iPhone I've ever had. It is little, which I like. It works well.We use SmartTalk- so no contract AT ALL. I paid under $200.00 for it so that works for me... I can't believe how much Apple asks for the newer versions. If customers balked maybe the prices would come down.But instead, you hear of people waiting in lines for the newest model? Not very economically savvy behavior! LOL. To each her own, as long as my phone works well I am keepin' it!

 

I miss the days of signing a contract & getting the phone for free... I'm usually about every 2 years or so... but I find that phones just arent made to last beyond that much anymore. I was just doing some research on phones- my daughter WANTS one SO bad... and honestly there are times when it could come in really handy for me to communicate with her... so we are thinking maybe for Christmas a phone (I would get the new one, she would get my almost 2 yr old phone) with NO data. She would be able to call/text, but only use wifi for data. You'd think that would make it cheaper (new phone with no data plan) but I'm having a hard time finding something like that. As it stands now, I would have to add her to hubby & I's plan, then through my at&t account, turn off her data. Anywho... we'll see what we end up deciding...

 

DH and I still have our 7's. I talk about upgrading from time to time, but my phone works great and I have lots of internal memory in it so I haven't ever even filled it up. The prices make me gasp for the same amount of internal memory I have now - they upped the price to the point of ridiculousness. Plus, I can't even stand to think about not having a "home button". That's the main reason I haven't upgraded. Everybody says I'll get used to it, but as long as my 7 keep working perfectly, I'm keeping it. We own these phones, so our bill is minimal and the new phones are so expensive - I just can't go back into contracts right now. It's makes my head hurt to even go in the phone store.

 

We tend to wind up upgrading approximately every three years. My husband has usually worn his out by then and we just upgrade mine and his at once. We currently have 6s iPhones but we’re actually getting new phones in the next week or two... and it’s actually been 3.5 years this time!

My phone is still working well and we’re actually going to add a line for our daughter and give her my old phone. When we moved, we took her away from literally everyone she knows and we want to make it a little easier for her to stay in touch with her grandparents and cousins.

 

I generally upgrade about every 2-2.5 years. I upgraded my phone this time after 1.5 yrs b/c I got a great deal on the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus and was a bit nervous about jumping ship from iPhone but I'm so glad I did it. They are both great companies but I like the customizing I can do with the Samsung and I like the photos I get from it.

 

Oh, I forgot to mention the size. I have so much trouble handling anything bigger than what I have right now - the 7 (not plus). Whenever anybody hands me their big phones and asks me to take a picture with their phones, I think "yikes, that's big". The problem is, they're not going to get any smaller, I don't think.

It's so weird - my first cell phone was like a brick and then they started getting smaller over the years. A few of my phones were really small. Then, gradually, they've gotten bigger again. We're going to end up with "light-weight bricks" again.

 

I've only upgraded my cell phone once so far. I got my first, an iPhone4, in November 2013. We had a 2 year contract with that one. And knowing nothing about them, I hadn't realized storage can be an issue. So in November 2015 I eagerly upgraded to my current iPhone6 with 64Gb storage. Now storage is never an issue. And I'm determined to use this phone for many years.

I was close to thinking I would need to upgrade last week. Suddenly apps started crashing upon opening. Even basic ones like text messaging. Made it kind of useless. Also the battery has begun to wear down more quickly. But I did some research and after a while I tried erasing my phone, resetting it to factory settings. I've only reinstalled 2 pages of apps (versus the 6 pages of apps I had before) and -- until yesterday -- I had no more app crashing. And it felt like I got a new phone, having to set everything up all over again!

Now I'm having a problem with the Day One app since I made a journal entry yesterday with a video. I'm thinking maybe Day One is struggling to run on an old phone.

I have sometimes wished I had a better phone camera, but I still have my DSLR if I really want to make high quality photos. If I can keep this phone running, I'll probably upgrade when I have the money for it.

 

We've generally do our upgrade when we start having charging issues or other such things.

That being said, I always have my eyes on the next Samsung models coming up, just incase I want to switch early. lol

 

I had one of those brick phones as well! I got my first cell phone in 1996. It was a present from my mother. I had to drive on a 2 lane sometimes hazardous road through the country to get to my job. At that time it could be 2 miles or more between houses (not so much these days). She worried about me on that road in the winter. There was no LD on the phones at that time and if you were out of your home area, you had to pay roaming charges. $3 a day. Dad and I used it to call home when we were in DC for his navy reunion to check on her since she was too ill to go. I also then used it to check in with work when I was in FL over Christmas and let them know she had passed away.

Then came the really 2 different small phones, one a flip phone and the other a non-flip phone that was actually smaller than the flip phone when it was opened. My cousin's first cell phone was a bag phone. And, the only place she could use it at her house was outside since she lives in the hills of southeastern Ohio. There was only one area where she could get a signal.

 

I usually upgrade about every 3-4 years...usually, like @bestcee said, when it stops holding a charge.