My phone is 6 years old and still works fine battery is okay, apps run smoothly, no real issues.
From a money perspective, part of me feels I should keep using it until it dies. But another part of me wonders if upgrading sooner could actually save costs in the long run (e.g., repairs, resale value, or avoiding a sudden failure).
For those who like to stretch devices as long as possible:
- When do you decide it’s more frugal to keep vs upgrade?
- Do you factor in resale value, repair costs, or future-proofing?
- Have you ever regretted holding on too long or upgrading too soon?
Curious how other frugal folks make the call.
Still using my 6-year-old phone, when is it actually frugal to upgrade?
byu/Zealousideal-Arm4462 inFrugal
Posted by Zealousideal-Arm4462
19 Comments
I always have my current phone and my last phone. This makes it every easy to use the old one while I fix or replace the current one. I stay ~2 years out of date, as that seems to be the sweet spot for buying used phones, or older newer phones that are now heavily discounted.
The only reason I upgraded my 8 year old phone this year was because my iOS was so old that some apps just stopped working (apps I needed and used often). So I was kinda forced to but I didn’t end up having to pay anything and my bill went down too.
Sadly, security updates are the limiting factor for me these days. I wish my devices lasted longer, but they don’t.
I try to buy devices with longer commited update periods and then run them for the duration of that update period.
My 6 year old phone is still significantly better than anything out there other than the flagships from its own line. As long as it is still working there is no reason to replace.
I guess it’s up to you. I am not sure the numbers on phone resell return / age, but I’ll say personally I’ve been using same iphone 6s since 2021. Got its battery replaced last year and have been very happy with its performance. However, the iOS no longer updates and there is a significant percentage of apps I can’t use since they require ios 16/17 and up.
I love my phone and am someone who hates change, so I’m trying to use it until I absolutely can’t anymore. If I tried to sell it today, I don’t think I’d get more than $60
Battery will eventually lose its effectiveness or swell up.
I replaced the battery in my old SE until it no longer would support apps, I also never update the IOS. I then replaced it with a newer SE refurbished for $200 cad, it’s been 3 years and no issues yet.
Phones haven’t changed that much in the past 6 years. Screens are better and the cameras are a little better. But not a whole lot else
There’s only 2 reasons to update these days
* Battery degradation (which you mentioned wasn’t an issue)
* Camera upgrades (if you value taking great photos)
I have a S23U and plan to get the S26U. Could maybe hold longer, but have plenty of disposable income and love taking great photos.
Just use it until it dies. These days, if your phone suddenly stops working, you can have a new one inside of a few hours.
I had an iPhone 12 until just a few days ago. My speakers died, and it was annoying having to grab a Bluetooth headset every time I wanted to answer a call.
My wife’s 13 completely gave up after getting salt water on it at the beach.
Otherwise, we would still have them.
When i couldn’t update it to the latest iOS anymore then i know it’s time
I am in same situation. Works fine except battery is at 77%. Probably i will upgrade in the coming month because teplacing battery is not worth it (200) and the value of the phone if i trade it will be lost if i wait 1-2 years (200). So its about 400 discount.
I keep mine until it’s paid off, and nearly gets too old for updates. I went from an iPhone 8 to a 13 and still using it. No hurry to layout a ton of money for a new phone since the 13 is fine for my needs.
I kept my Samsung S5 until I could no longer run apps on it. I don’t know how long I kept it, but it was many years. My next phone was a Samsung S23. There was no resale value on my old phone.
if ur a gamer, upgrading every 5 years for a midend phone is good… another phone spec u want to take note of is camera and picture quality, but i dont care about this, so i dont know… other then that, if ur just a casual user, buying a low end budget phone every 5 years is good enough… use ur old phone as a spare, u can charge it and browse internet and youtube at home…
I’m curious but what phone are you using?
look for good trade in values and deals from both your carrier and stores like bestbuy. if you could upgrade to the latest phone for a few hundred bucks it might be worth it rather than having yours crap out next year and have nothing
it only really matters if you care *at all* about your phone though, because otherswise you can just get a shitty used phone on marketplace etc whenever your current one breaks
My previous phone lasted from 2016 to 2020 and I had to replace it since it was slow and the battery was no longer charging for whatever reason. I have kept my current phone since then.
There are a lot of things to be frugal on and I’m cheap.in most ways but I tend to get a new phone every 4 years. I use it so constantly it’s the one thing I feel I can splurge on, but I’ll generally hit a 4 year time frame where it starts to slow down so I’m not throwing away something perfectly good.