Frozenmetalgear
Contributor
I have had three changes in Android smartphones from last 4 years but my old iPhone 6s still works better than any of them. I think the quality is just getting downhill for today's smartphones
Which smartphone had the longest lifespan for you !
- Thread starter Frozenmetalgear
- Start date
nRiTeCh
Northstar
Not all androids are good but only few.. vivo oppo poco choco loco etc. type are short-lived phones even if you buy their hi-end ones. redmis are durable and last good. Same for motorolas. Again, samsungs confusing never-ending series confuses so much to the buyers they end up buying their crap phones and start to struggle just under 6 -12 months. No wonder why samsungs are up for sale so sooner except for the pro series which costs a bomb!
OMEGA44-XT
Herald
Have been using android phones for 11 years now, starting with Galaxy Y.
The longest serving phone was my Samsung S8, the S835 variant, for 4 years. Before that, Sony Z3C served me well for 3 years.
I can see my S20FE 5G going strong for at least 3 years, but I will love a compact phone in future. There were no decent compact phones in India 1.5 years back, S21 exynos was an easy no because of exynos.
The longest serving phone was my Samsung S8, the S835 variant, for 4 years. Before that, Sony Z3C served me well for 3 years.
I can see my S20FE 5G going strong for at least 3 years, but I will love a compact phone in future. There were no decent compact phones in India 1.5 years back, S21 exynos was an easy no because of exynos.
Frozenmetalgear
Contributor
I had a very short lived experience with note 8 pro sadly. I don't even play on any of those smartphones as that would significantly reduces the life span.
I believe pixels are what separates them from the rest of the herd of smartphones.
I wonder if it's actually the quality of the overall smartphone or the software efficiency that keeps them running
Samsung does make themselves standout with their 5 year ota updates. Is it thier high end only which stick for 3+ yrs?
nRiTeCh
Northstar
Note 8 pro was a flop phone. It was released just to fill-in 8 no. having nothing major to offer.
Went through Android phones from LG, Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Google for the past several years and haven't held on to any of them for more than 2 years. However, within that, Google provides a better experience because while their software is buggy, it is also optimised and works well with lesser hardware. Samsung starts off strong but they probably offload updates to a secondary team after a year because you can feel the OS struggling on the same hardware due to increasingly poorer ootimisation. Also, their security updates tail off to 1 security update every 1-2 quarters later on which is a joke, just to meet the 5-year commitment. Xiaomi basically sells the hardware for cheap, software be damned as long as they can collect data and serve ads, so it is good as long as you can get rid of MIUI and you don't lose the hardware QC gamble.
On the Apple side, have used the iPhone 7 which remains my longest at around 3 years, followed by SE 2 and now 12 mini. My family members though have crossed 4 years with older iPhone without complaints, so if you are not tempted by the latest and greatest, probably iPhone will have the best software support for the longest duration.
(2019) Redmi note 7s still works. I had to start using a new phone though because the Voice over wifi doesnt work properly, and there is no proper mobile signal at my home..
DAYUM, how could I forget this: My Infocus M810 still works. My Jio sim isn't supported hence unable to use it for calls - but I am using it as a browsing device and some apps that are yet supported on the ancient OS.
DAYUM, how could I forget this: My Infocus M810 still works. My Jio sim isn't supported hence unable to use it for calls - but I am using it as a browsing device and some apps that are yet supported on the ancient OS.
Last edited:
OMEGA44-XT
Herald
I think S22 series & later get 4 OS updates.
Frozenmetalgear
Contributor
Miui was good back then i believe.. Just as @Emperor mentioned,i think pre 2020 smartphones would hold out well compared to the rest. Only few stand out with their actual software optimizations
Yeah , had the same experience
Nevertheless, these phone were built like a tank
enthusiast29
Innovator
Redmi Note 5 Pro, 5 yrs. No issues, using custom ROM. Would never survive this much on stock ROM.
Pixel 2 xl. Bought in July 2021 from US freedom sale. The device had already been 3 years old at the time of purchase. So intended to use it for 1 year only thinking the battery would be shite and device will perform like shite due to having no update. But after checking those 30k Samsung crap I see what software optimisation is, and this is 60 Hz too.
Yeah.
One should keep in mind though that Pixels are literally the worst for longevity, all except this 2xl.
Yeah.
One should keep in mind though that Pixels are literally the worst for longevity, all except this 2xl.
nRiTeCh
Northstar
Pixels have always suffered from poor battery life and now they come up with outdated hardware and exorbitant prices compared to their rivals which offer better specs and pricing.
Apart from software and camera no one should consider a Pixel. And this is coming from someone who would carry on using a Pixel for the foreseeable future despite the drawbacks you mention of.
Regarding hardware, they should be ashamed of themselves for using that garbage trash called Tensor, or rebranded Exynos.
Emperor
Herald
Redmi Note 5pro was really a good phone for non gamer
Heisen
Forerunner
Started with android phones in 2011, did all the things that were possible, root, tweaks, custom roms you name it up until 2016, then switched to iOS, in the first year did all the jailbreak stuff that was possible, but from there on it's just iOS. Currently I am using iPhone se 1st gen from 2018, but have used other iPhones too in between.
It was harder at first to use iPhone because of addiction to android customization, iOS seemed too restricted from the eyes of android power user that I was but little did I know, that iOS has it's own learning curve, which is quite difficult to adapt at first because of it's simplistic nature, because I was so used to the complexity of things that when something much simpler came in front of me, it just felt bleh !!!.
But that's when things started to change, I felt 80% of settings and customization that android offered was actually not needed at all. A phone just needs to N number of tasks and those tasks must be done reliably every single time. That's it and iOS offers just that. The restricted nature of iOS is not so restricted now a days (it was a little in the beginning), if we talk about actual things, not just gimmicky features. A lot can be done on iOS, in reality an average iOS user doesn't even know what that thing is capable of.
Anyways, after using iOS for one year, I realized I don't really need a custom rom, or update my rom when new version comes out, all the flashing, rooting, bootloader unlock stuff, it's just too much time consuming. The official update of iOS is enough. It does not make me less of a geek, it just saves me more time, which I spend geeking about other stuff.
It was harder at first to use iPhone because of addiction to android customization, iOS seemed too restricted from the eyes of android power user that I was but little did I know, that iOS has it's own learning curve, which is quite difficult to adapt at first because of it's simplistic nature, because I was so used to the complexity of things that when something much simpler came in front of me, it just felt bleh !!!.
But that's when things started to change, I felt 80% of settings and customization that android offered was actually not needed at all. A phone just needs to N number of tasks and those tasks must be done reliably every single time. That's it and iOS offers just that. The restricted nature of iOS is not so restricted now a days (it was a little in the beginning), if we talk about actual things, not just gimmicky features. A lot can be done on iOS, in reality an average iOS user doesn't even know what that thing is capable of.
Anyways, after using iOS for one year, I realized I don't really need a custom rom, or update my rom when new version comes out, all the flashing, rooting, bootloader unlock stuff, it's just too much time consuming. The official update of iOS is enough. It does not make me less of a geek, it just saves me more time, which I spend geeking about other stuff.