Replacing a smartphone every two years is partly the reason billions of phones go to landfills every year. Many phones would reach farther than a phone if stacked flat on top of each other ISS. But we’re used to this 24-month time frame because wireless carriers often upgrade to two-year contracts, and many smaller phone manufacturers suggestion only two years of software support. But now, with longer software commitments from major manufacturers and increased right-to-repair legislation, many new phones may end up in our pockets for close to seven trips around the sun. Here’s how to extend the life of your smartphone and avoid hundreds of bullets before it’s absolutely necessary.
How to make your smartphone last longer
Use the case
Carrying a bare phone around is a bare-bones act, but when you apply extra protection, the phone’s chances of dropping it increase dramatically. We recommend a few of them in our guide iPhone cases and ours eco friendly phone cases guide. We were happy in my family Mousse cases. Although we have never been subjected to the brutality seen on our phones company advertisementsI can say that these cases have seen my partner’s aging Samsung Galaxy and my aging iPhone through some pretty minor leaks, protecting them from scratch or worse.
Pay attention to the internal battery (or use a power bank)
Since a phone’s battery is often the first thing to show signs of age, it’s worth following the recommendations to extend its life. Lithium-ion batteries don’t perform well in heat, and you should avoid charging them if it’s hotter than 95 degrees—doing so can quickly degrade the battery and even cause it to fail. They will tolerate cold weather better, but can become sluggish if it is too cold.
If you are keeping the phone for a while, it is better to do it with the battery half-charged rather than full or empty. In fact, Li-ion cells last longer when they either fully discharge or take less time to fully discharge – hence the battery optimization features iPhones and Pixel phones usually delay charging your cell phone to 100 percent overnight until about an hour before you pick it up. While it is sometimes necessary to charge a battery quickly, when speed is not critical, a slower charging method will put less stress on the ion components and help extend the life of the cell.
But over time, any battery eventually wears out. The cell powering the iPhone 11 can get through a typical day, but if I’m traveling, relying heavily on navigation, or using the phone as a hotspot, it’ll need extra before bed. It’s easy if I’m at home, but in the world a battery pack is a must. After testing, I have some of them in my hands for our best power banks guide and are the two that I hold the most Otterbox fast chargingbecause it looks cool and has good capacity and Agile Champion Probecause it is very fast.
If you really want to give your phone a new lease of life, a new internal battery could be the ticket. For Pixel phones, you can go through Google official channel you can either go for a walk-in or mail-in repair, or go the DIY route with iFixit. Pixel repair kits and instructions. For iPhones, you can start from Apple Official pagego through Best Buy or other third parties or try iFixit methods. There is also Samsung internal selectionor you can try Best Buy or iFixit. Depending on where you go and the model of your phone, the cost of a new battery and installation will likely run you between $45 and $150 – still a lot less than ditching your phone for something new.
Clear your phone’s memory
Most advice on how to clean your phone and running hubs faster in one thing: freeing up space. Your phone’s OS will likely have suggestions for freeing up storage space, such as automatically downloading unused apps or deleting old messages. You can also do things manually by uninstalling apps you don’t use. Then, browse your photos and videos stored locally, or choose to pay for cloud storage or transfer files to a computer or external storage device. You may also want to consider getting rid of music and movies you’ve downloaded for offline use, and deleting old messages and large attachments. A good rule of thumb is to keep your memory at about 80 percent capacity. After deleting and moving what you can, restart your phone to give it a chance to clear the cache.
Why you can (and should) extend the life of your smartphone.
Electronic waste stream is growing every year and it doesn’t do great things for him human or planetary health. Smartphone companies offer better and more consistent trade-in deals, but they even offer some electronic recycling has defects. Instead of buying a new one, just hanging on to it is the most efficient way to reduce your phone’s environmental impact – and it’ll save you money.
While every major phone manufacturer would have you believe that an upgrade is essential every year, it’s worth noting that the next generation of phones often bear a strong resemblance to the previous year’s model. We called both iPhone and Google Pixel the most significant updates in years, but prior to that, there was no upgrade many sense. The latest Samsung Galaxy phone there are a bunch of new AI tricks, but not physically it is very different from what came before it.
With only minor hardware upgrades, more exciting new features are available through over-the-air software updates. When Google released the Pixel 8 last October, the company promised security and software updates exactly seven years. Samsung came out with the Galaxy S24 in January of this year and committed same support for their phones. Apple didn’t promise the same, but during the iOS 17 launch last year cut support For the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, both models have enjoyed updates for nearly six years since their launch.
What Apple did We announce that the batteries in all four iPhone 15 models are last twice as long as the company originally claimed. Originally, the battery capacity was listed as 80 percent of the original full charge after 500 cycles. Now the same capacity rating applies to 1000 cycles. Apple says the improvement comes from advanced battery technology and better power management from the operating system. It’s true that battery technology has evolved capacity Over the years, however, longevity has not improved across the board Research by PhoneArena clarifies.
There could be more improvement in battery life on the horizon especially as the EV industry based on lithium-ion cells grows. Currently, declining battery health is the most noticeable problem affecting older phones. This year, the European Parliament voted on regulations for battery-powered devices, including a mandate to allow consumers to “easily remove and replace” batteries. It won’t go into effect until 2027, and there will be many interpretation What does “easily” mean? But EU mandates forced Apple to finally abandon Lightning ports on iPhones USB-Cso this may eventually be a step (once again) to have smartphones with replaceable batteries.
Even in the US, legislation will soon force companies to do so repair a better option. Bills on the right to repair were passed last year New York, Minnesota and other states. California has the strongest rule and he even won Apple support. After the law takes effect in July, it will require companies to provide repair tools and documentation and sell components within seven years of the last new model for any device costing more than $100. Of course, the law does not say anything about the ban.”pairing of parts,” where the device works properly only when it is repaired by an authorized repair center by the manufacturer with official parts.
Currently, there are a number of phones that are decent repairability scoresAccording to the online repair community iFixit ( Fairphone 5 gets the highest marks). Once California’s law goes into effect, more models could be user-repairable, given that a handful of manufacturers will ignore the state’s nearly 40 million customers. Meanwhile, authorized repair is an option for the more industrious.
