It's not uncommon for smartphone owners to stop being satisfied with their current device for no apparent reason - an issue that becomes particularly acute after the presentation of new versions of the device. Users begin to complain about problems with the battery, memory and other functions of the gadget, but, as The New York Times notes, most of these "shortcomings" can be solved literally from the comfort of their homes and continue to use the smartphone for several years.
Weak Battery
A leading Mobile Research analyst said in a conversation that, on average, a smartphone retains its relevance for about two years.
"If we are talking about the middle segment or the flagships, then there it is four years at least."
One of the main complaints of users who are fired up about buying a new gadget is the inability to hold a battery charge in an older device.
Meanwhile, if the gadget shows from five hours of screen time with active use of social networks, games and watching videos, then it and its battery are fine.
This is average for most modern smartphones, as they are all equipped with many power-consuming features, such as geolocation, high display refresh rate, etc.
Some batteries do fail early, but this fact is not a sentence for a smartphone. Replacing the battery will cost many times less than buying a new gadget.
"It is worth remembering that the battery is a consumable item. It can be replaced, there is no problem."
Not enough memory
Some users of older smartphones may find a notification stating that the drive is full. In this case, many are limited to just deleting unnecessary applications and at some point are faced with the fact that there is nothing more to delete, and the memory is still not free. In the case where the smartphone does not have the ability to install an SD card to expand the memory, there are several solutions to this problem.
First, it is worth cleaning the device from the cache - each application has its own and can take up gigabytes of space.
Second, you can use the transfer of large and important files to a computer, an external hard drive, a flash drive or use cloud storage. The latter solution may be the most convenient because it requires no investment - many resources present certain space for free, and with an Internet connection, you can always access files in the cloud.
Not coming updates
Another problem that may force the user to think about upgrading is the lack of up-to-date updates of the operating system. This argument is one of the most important, because the safety and security of the personal data of the owner of the gadget depends on it, but even in this case, you should not run to the store immediately after the next presentation.
"Apple takes an extremely long time to keep its devices up to date. For iOS fans it is recommended to think about buying a new device when the device will no longer receive updates or if the device stops coping with user tasks (long processing of requests, lags, external damages)."
It is believed that in the case of smartphones running Android, everything is much more complicated: "The support period of devices on this platform is much shorter than that of the competitor, it also differs from the manufacturer. Therefore you need to think about how long ago your device received system updates (a device without security updates is extremely vulnerable to new threats). Also, as in the case with iOS, if the device stops coping with the user's tasks, it is an indication that the familiar smartphone is time to replace it.
So when is it really worth buying a new device without considering it a fad? If we talk about the need to change a smartphone, it is more often about obsolescence - people want to try something new.
"In this case, the term is built based on the budget. In general, the average life span of a smartphone is 3-4 years," the expert believes.
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