Smartphones Are Like Cars. So Why Don’t We Maintain Them?

It has little to do with consumers and more to do with forced obsolescence.

I just bought a new smart phone after 4 years. My old phone was running Android 9 and stopped receiving security updates in May, 2021. The battery was also shot and I had about 30-45 minutes of phone use before it would just shutdown. Did it feel snappy while using it, yes. If it had Android 12 and kept getting security updates would I have probably continued to use it? yes.

People have been saying time and time again for years that the race to have the slimmest X was stupid. There is no reason why phone companies cannot do a plastic phone back that pops on and off and lets the user upgrade their battery like the phones use to have. There is also no reason why we cannot have longer phone support, other than time and money.

There are some big upgrades that happen every 4-5 years or so that would probably make some people upgrade like 5G, AMOLED screens, 120hz, or 4k resolution.

I do find it personally funny that most people shell out money for the latest iPhone year after year for the most part, but will have some shitty macbook air from 5 years ago. But that is because we have attached status to phones and not computers.

In the end, it is up to the companies to make these changes, but having a longer lasting phone goes against the idea of selling more phones per year for more money. They would rather ditch chargers and the plastic wrappers and virtue signal they are environmentally friendly so people feed good instead of actually saving the environment by making a phone last 5+ years.

I'm on a 2 year plan and that feels like I'm really pushing it. Already I'm bumping up to limits with the phones 6GB stipend of system memory a year in. My prior phone is 2 years old (though it's release date is older) and now it's become frustrating to use as I once did. Whether that's app and system updates, I don't know for sure, but my daily usage remains the same. I will certainly get at least 3 years out of these phones but slowly their use cases will narrow, my prior phone is primally a Chromecast controller and ReadEra machine already. I would love for a device to be pleasantly useable for 6 years but I just don't see how it's feasible.

I agree with the article. I would love to see more companies created that manufacture highly modular and hackable phones like the Fairphone. Fairphone is only available in the EU and not in the US. Every component in it can be replaced. I see that as an opportunity to have individual parts that can be upgraded over the phones lifetime and perhaps even custom modules created that meet the specific needs and desires of the phone owner. Don't like the OS? Just replace it without having to run some janky software and risk bricking the phone.