Common wisdom says that you should avoid replacing your phone until it’s broken or unusable. But common wisdom isn’t always right. Due to the poor support cycles offered by manufacturers, most Android phones should be replaced after two years of their launch date.
It’s an upsetting reality that some manufacturers (and customers) hope to change. But until that change comes, Android users should seriously consider replacing their phone every two years.
The Big Reason: Security
Replacing your Android phone every two years isn’t some exercise in vanity; it’s a matter of security and personal privacy. Your phone contains a ton of private information, like logins, text messages, and location data. Hackers can sell this information if they break into your phone, and generally speaking, it’s easier to hack an old phone than a new phone.
I’m not talking out of my rear—this is a real thing. Google rolls out important Android security updates every month, and phone manufacturers are responsible for delivering these updates to their respective products. But manufacturers rarely send out a security patch every month, and more often than not, they stop sending updates to a phone within two years of its release.
That’s a big problem, as the average person isn’t waiting in line to buy a new phone on its launch day. Most people go to their carrier when they need a new device and buy something that’s already a few months old, meaning that they experience less than two years of security updates. (And if you’re budget-minded and buy a year-old phone, you may only get a few months of updates.)
Some phone manufacturers offer a much longer support window for their flagship devices. For example, Google, Samsung, and OnePlus all commit to at least three years of updates for high-end phones. And Fairphone, a sustainable brand, still supports phones that are nearly a decade old.
That said, if you grab the latest Samsung Galaxy device on launch day, you’ll be set for at least three years. But used or affordable devices from Samsung and other brands, such as Motorola or TCL, won’t be secure for all that long.
To check when your phone launched, look up its name with the words “release date” on Google. You can also look up your phone’s name with the words “update cycle” to see if the manufacturer has announced the phone’s end-of-support date. (Can’t find the name of your phone? Open Settings and head to About My Phone.)
Android Phones Quickly Lose Trade-In Value
If you’ve never traded in an old phone, you’re missing out on serious discounts. Carriers and retailers offer hundreds off new phones when you offer a device for trade-in, though naturally, your discount often depends on the age and quality of whatever phone you’re giving up.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much of a demand for old Android devices. In order to get a decent amount of money back, you need to trade in your old phone before it’s considered “too old.” And because of the aforementioned security update SNAFU, that means trading in your old phone around the two-year mark.
Flagship devices from Google and Samsung retain their value for a lot longer than other Android phones, of course. And if you own an ultra-budget device, the winnings from a trade-in may be marginal at best.
That said, maximizing your phone’s trade-in value can help you save money, and it ensures that you always own a device that actively receives security updates.
New Phone, New Features
Samsung
Privacy and security should be the motivating factors for regularly replacing your phone. But hey, getting new features every few years is also a plus.
Not only will your new smartphone pack better cameras than its predecessor, but it may support features that you’re missing, like 5G. Not to mention, smartphone batteries age pretty quickly! Replacing your smartphone relatively often will help you maintain an all-day battery life without any weird battery-saving apps or workarounds. (Replacing your phone’s battery is a much more sustainable option, of course.)
And because the average Android device only gets two years of updates, you may quickly find yourself with an outdated version of the Android operating system. The OnePlus Nord N10 5G, for example, is stuck with Android 11 despite its January 2021 launch date. (At the time of writing, Android 12 is the current OS release. Android 13 launches near the tail end of 2022.)
Using an old version of Android isn’t that big of a deal, as most apps support multiple Android releases. But if you’re stuck on Android 10 or 11, then you’re missing out on all the cool features offered with Android 12, including new theming controls, a quick smart home dashboard, faster performance, and a one-handed mode.
Android's underappreciated upgrade advantage
Yup, you read that right. And it's as true as can be, even if Apple does everything in its power to make you forget.
Android Intelligence Analysis
Well, gang, it's that time of year again — time when a magical and revolutionary new iOS update is making its way into the world and everyone's talking about how Android's software upgrade standard is an embarrassment in comparison.
Now, look, you know me: I'm not gonna beat around the bush and tell you that the Android upgrade system is optimal — or even anything close to free from flaws. My annual Android Upgrade Report Card strips the situation of its velvety bathrobe and lays bare the cold, sobering truth, even when certain Android device-makers fight nail and tooth to convince us everything's peachy.
As is almost always the case, though, the reality is far more nuanced than you'd be led to believe. Yes, the vast majority of Android device-makers are flat-out failing when it comes to keeping their devices consistently up to date with the latest Android version. Yes, that's especially true when it comes to the oft-overlooked year-old flagship phone models, not to mention the sprawling galaxy of midrange and budget-level devices. And yes, even Google, as the sole Android hardware creator doing an all-around admirable job at providing timely and reliable software updates to its devices, could and should be supporting phones for far longer than it is (a shift that signs suggest could finally shape up soon, incidentally).
But still, the situation isn't nearly as black and white as it appears. And the Apple-to-Android upgrade comparison, as I've put it before, is very much a case of comparing apples to oranges.
The two-part tale of Android upgrades
Let's start with the Android side of the equation, shall we? Most of the attention related to upgrades understandably revolves around Google's shiny annual Android operating system updates. And you'd better believe those updates matter — not only for the interface enhancements they deliver but also for the under-the-hood improvements they provide in critically important areas areas like privacy, security, and performance.
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But with Android, those operating system updates are only half the story. For well over a decade now, Google's been pulling what were once core operating system elements out of the operating system proper and treating them as standalone apps instead. That means those elements — all of which are still considered part of the single-bundle operating system in the land of iOS — get updated numerous times a month, all throughout the year. And those updates reach every single Android device within a matter of days, regardless of which company made it or how long ago it was released.
A perfect example of that principle in action came up just the other day, when Google announced it was bringing the formerly Android-11-exclusive feature of auto-resetting app permissions to all Android devices running 2015's Android 6.0 software or higher. That feature provides a huge privacy and security boost, as it makes sure apps you're no longer actively using can't keep accessing sensitive forms of data on your phone.
Apples vs. oranges
All right — time for the biggest and most rarely acknowledged reality check of all: At this point, nearly every single element that's considered a significant part of an annual Apple iOS update is handled in an a la carte manner on Android — with multiple monthly updates that impact close to every still-functioning Android phone. In other words, even Android phones from eight years ago get updates numerous times a year that are all virtually equivalent to an entire iOS operating system rollout. Those updates just aren't packaged neatly or presented cohesively, and most people don't consider how all of the small-seeming pieces add up.
Need proof? Take a quick gander at Apple's iOS 15 announcement from Monday. The top features on the page include improvements to the FaceTime video calling experience and the iPhone messaging experience, the launch of a new device-wide text recognition system, and improvements to the iPhone search, browser, mapping, notes, weather, and mobile payment applications. Beyond that, the software features new voice control options, cloud backup options, and scattered enhancements to the iOS health, translation, and accessibility systems.
Well, guess what? Every single one of those areas is handled by a standalone app in Android and updated dozens of times a year in a way that reaches all Android devices almost instantly.
To be fair, this latest iOS update also includes improvements to the iPhone's notifications system. That's the sort of change that is still tied to a traditional operating system update on Android. But practically everything else significant in iOS 15 — including the much ballyhooed new series of privacy controls within the Apple Mail app and the Siri voice command system — is the sort of thing we see rolled out on Android year-round, outside of any formal operating system announcements.
That's certainly true with elements like video calling improvements, with Google Meet and Duo in the Android domain. It's true with the constantly evolving Google Messages app on Android. And it's true with the curiously underemphasized Google Lens app for Android text recognition as well as the eponymous Google app for mobile searching and voice commands, the Maps app for on-the-go navigation, and quite literally everything else from the iOS 15 list we went over a second ago.
What's especially interesting is that with rare exception, there are virtually no limits to how and when those scattered Android updates apply. The nearly-nine-year-old Nexus 4 sitting in my desk drawer still gets every update to every one of those applications every month and receives the same sort of functionality Apple is delivering as part of its iOS 15 update in small deliveries year-round. The app permission expansion is a rare exception, given its reliance on programming interfaces that aren't present in super-old Android versions, but even that goes all the way back to devices from 2015 (and earlier, really, since plenty of phones from 2013 and 2014 are running Android 6.0, too).
For as good as Apple's support is, it typically stops entirely after a phone has passed the six-year mark since its release. And what's almost always overlooked in the glowing headlines about iOS updates is the fact that even devices from a year or two ago frequently don't get all of the features announced in a new iOS update. In fact, the vast majority of these latest additions and improvements have some manner of cutoff or restriction associated with 'em, even within that six-year window.
So while an older iPhone is still getting the latest update — and while that's undeniably a very good thing! — it's also very accurate to say that an equally dated Android device is ultimately getting more current features and updates even more regularly. It's just framed in a very different and generally less attention-grabbing way.
Again: apples and oranges.
Now, don't get me wrong: Android software updates have a long way to go. The poky and inconsistent manner in which most device-makers handle operating system rollouts is both ridiculous and unacceptable. But in the land of Android, that's also only one small part of a much larger software update picture.
And once you start thinking about the broader reality of the situation, you quickly realize that Android has some pretty significant advantages when it comes to older device updating. They're just advantages that are all too easy to overlook — and ones that don't fit neatly into Apple's carefully crafted narrative.
Nowadays, the smartphone serves so many functions for both personal and business needs that it’s hard not to become dependent on one to navigate through life. Sometimes this dependence becomes an issue, though, as technology advances so quickly that it can be hard to keep up with new systems and devices. When your smartphone becomes antiquated, you’ll find applications crashing more often, software updates won’t be compatible with your system, and you may not even be able to download new applications. So the question is, how often do you need to upgrade your smartphone?
Even though millions of Americans stormed Apple retail outlets September 2014 to purchase the newly released iPhone 6, statistics reported by Yahoo!’s Tech Columnist Rob Pegoraro show that the majority of Americans don’t actually purchase a new phone all that often – they’re actually buying phones less frequently than in previous years. In 2007, the average upgrade cycle for every type of phone – including simpler models than smartphones – was about every 19 months, whereas 2013’s average upgrade occurred about every 23 months.
Four Generations of iPhone: Original + 3G + 4 + 5
Smartphones are pricey, and it can become overwhelming when you finally upgrade your phone just to learn another version will be released a few months later. If you pride yourself on having the newest technology in your possession, carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon offer frequent phone upgrade plans that allow you to purchase a new phone for less money, at regular intervals. To help keep you current and ease the financial burden, they also have monthly payment plans that allow you to pay off the cost of a new phone over time, so that you don’t have to shell out $600 all at once. However, just because you can doesn’t mean you have to.
Distinguishing Between Your Smartphone Wants & Needs
It’s important to assess what you, as an individual, really need in a smartphone before investing in an upgrade. Even though technology seems to be improving at rapid speed, when you compare one smartphone with the model just before it, not too much typically improves. Generally, tweaking occurs in aesthetics – font sizes and styles might change, along with the overall size, color, and features of the phone. The quality of pictures and security features also tend to get bumped up a notch.
If you’re satisfied with your current phone, these aren’t really sufficient reasons to lay down hundreds of dollars on a new model. If you’re just looking for a phone you can use for jotting down notes, taking pictures, making phone calls and texting, surfing the Internet, and playing a few games, there’s no need to upgrade your smartphone for years.
At a certain point, though, the world will outgrow your device, and your smartphone will no longer be so “smart.” You won’t be able to perform software updates on it or download new applications. And, if you’re looking to buy accessories for them, such as fitness armbands or chargers, they might be harder to come by. Especially if you use your phone for business, as well as for personal reasons, it might behoove you to upgrade more often so that you will always be up to date with your operating system and to ensure everything is always running smoothly.
It’s always nice to have the newest smartphone and latest technology in the palm of your hand, but for a device so expensive, you might want to upgrade at the pace of the average American: every 2 years. When you do upgrade your smartphone, it’s important to recycle your old device.
Worldwide, hundreds of millions of outdated smartphones are sent to landfills where their toxic metals leach into the soil and water, and hundreds of pounds of precious metals used in those smartphones are wasted. In fact, the EPA estimates that for every million smartphone devices that are committed to landfills, “35 thousand pounds of copper, 772 pounds of silver, 75 pounds of gold, and 33 pounds of palladium can be recovered.” To properly recycle your old smartphones, drop them off at EcoCycle‘s Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM) facility.
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