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Comment by mattlondon | Hacker News Reader

Does anyone keep a phone for close to 8 years?

Don't get me wrong this is a good thing but in my experience at about 3 years you are looking at roughly 1000 charging cycles and so the battery will barely last 12 hours. Add into that knocks and bumps and scratches and they're basically junk by then. Even if you could replace the battery, the physical wear and tear is quite substantial I find (they're tools after all)

I suppose if you have been ultra cautious and basically leave your phone at home on the charger 90% of the time and keep it wrapped up in some huge case then it is conceivable that you might approach 8 years... But then if you are like this barely even use the phone, why not just get a feature phone?

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> at about 3 years you are looking at roughly 1000 charging cycles and so the battery will barely last 12 hours.

Yes, this is why user-replaceable batteries (which mobile phones had for many years) are important. So much so that the EU has passed legislation to force the industry to do the right thing. [1]

> and keep it wrapped up in some huge case

Depends on your phone, but I believe there's plenty of reasonable options to protect your pocket computing device that aren't "some huge case". Further, you should always invest in a decent screen protector. Scratches and damage to the screen impacts the usability of a slate form factor smartphone (since other than one or two hardware buttons, the entirety of your interaction with the device takes place through the screen).

> Add into that knocks and bumps and scratches and they're basically junk by then.

Why does some scuffing on the edges of the bezels turn a device into "junk", for you?

[1]: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/24/23771064/european-union-b...

We hand down pixel phones within the family and I'm the last one. Yeah battery is not the best any more but it's enough for a day and I leave it in on the charger over night. I'm also one of those people with those ugly black cases because I tend to drop my phone when I'm on my bike etc.

Most of the people I know don't change their phones because of battery issues but because there is a new phone on the market and they don't want to look cheap before their friends and colleges. The actual reason they tell if you ask them why they changed it is: "because it was slow". I can believe that too though since it already came bloated and the kept on downloading crap apps so...I guess the market is more happy with them than with my family.

> at about 3 years you are looking at roughly 1000 charging cycles and so the battery will barely last 12 hours

Then replace the battery and enjoy your phone. I still have 5+yo phones I use to listen to music at the gym or as a GPS with offline maps when cycling, and having a secure and up to date OS is nice.

I take my 2019 iPhone XS to the Apple Store where they replace the battery for like $60something bucks. Never really gotten much wear and tear from these phones outside of cracked screens from hard drops (which I wouldn't classify as wear and tear). I completely lack any desire for new phone hardware so the new battery makes financial sense.

Well, they continue to be sold for 2 years or more, which demonstrates the paucity of the 3 years of updates from the release date.

Meanwhile Apple quietly is bugging me to update my 9 year old ipad.

What is stopping anyone from doing just that? Limiting factors include battery, security updates, software updates, performance, hardware durability. I still use a Pixel (first edition, released in 2016). Both performance and hardware durability are very good. The battery is not great, but still good and it provides enough juice for at least one full day without excessive use. User-replacable batteries and guaranteed software/security update would make it even better. We should aim for long usage of these devices.

> in my experience at about 3 years you are looking at roughly 1000 charging cycles and so the battery will barely last 12 hours.

Depends on how you use it. I usually don't drain more than roughly 10% a day. I don't use my phone if I have a pc handy (which is most of the time). If I'm at the office or at home (which is most of the time) the phone will stay plugged-in.

1000 cycles in 3 years is almost a full cycle a day. It may have happened maybe once to me to use that much battery (I was using it as a GPS with no external power). Hell, my current phone's battery went down to like 40% after a long weekend away when I forgot to bring my charger.

So I guess I'm like your example. And the reason is that I use my mobile phone while out and about. Turns out, I don't go out much. Yes, I'm careful with it, but don't have it wrapped in a huge case. It only had a thin silicone case because the iPhone 7 was extremely slippery. It spent countless miles attached to my motorbike's handlebars in the sun and rain, doing GPS duty. When I stopped using it because the battery was starting to bulge, it was still otherwise looking brand new and the performance was still enough for my needs.

Don't know of any feature phone able to do that.

I have my old Oneplus One as a backup phone, mostly for authenticators and stuff. It's definitely not as fast as a modern phone and the battery is worn down, but it's definitely good enough for messaging, video calling, browsing, and video playback. If I can find an AliExpress battery for it, I would expect the thing to last me as long as my current phone does.

The only problem with it is that the original software left it at Android 5.1, which is unusable in terms of app support these days even with compatibility libraries. Custom ROM support has managed to get Android 11 (still receives monthly updates!) on the device years after Oneplus dropped the phone, but if a bunch of volunteers can keep the phone updated, a company making hundreds of billions of dollars per year definitely could.

I think a significant portion of the population could (and would) still use a reasonably priced high-end phone from ten years ago after a battery swap. If the software wasn't rushed out, I don't see why eight years is that impossible to attain.

> Does anyone keep a phone for close to 8 years?

Ask and ye shall receive: I'm actually a little over 6 years into my BlackBerry KeyOne (though I will concede that I am an outlier).

> if you could replace the battery, the physical wear and tear is quite substantial

That's why I'm still using it. Parts are dirt cheap. There's scant little glue to dig through for anything that needs to be replaced, and it's easy to work on. It's been dropped so many times the only original-to-this-phone parts are the mainboard and damn SIM tray.

Beyond that, there are no other options. There is nothing meaningfully better that includes a notification LED, physical keyboard, reasonable battery life (due to chipset and smaller screen), SD card slot, 3.5mm jack, and has spare parts for reasonably low cost (ruling out later BlackBerry handsets).

I have a phone going on 6 years now. Replaced the battery a few years ago and slapped on a custom ROM once mine was invariably not supported. I don't have a huge case on it or keep it plugged most of the time.

It's my daily driver, so I use it all the time and it basically runs everything I need.

I'm not sure there are people who are buying new phones every 8 years. But buying a used 2-3 year old iPhone, using it for 3 years and then handing it down to be used another 3 years by someone else is very common around here (Germany).

If I had an easily replacable battery and updates on my phone for that long, I would. Right now mine is 3 years old and still perfectly adequate in terms of hardware, but I can't because it will stop getting security updates soon.

I have a 5 year old phone, running Android version that still allows recording phone calls and for banking.

I have a second much newer phone just for content consumption, but I don't make any important calls from it.

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