Asking because… On one hand I do see smartphones being released left-and-right, and they are rather integral to modern life
On the other hand I’m still chugging alone with my Pixel 6a that I bought 3 years ago with a replaced battery and a somewhat clogged charging port… and all my previous phones I only replaced when they have serious deficits that make them difficult to use
Wondering when you all replace phones. Please definitely mention it too if you ended up repurposing the old phone for something else
Because I use my phone for banking I am stuck with OEM android. I have an S21 that loses support soon, that pushes me to upgrade when the next version comes out but will also be jumping to the S26 Ultra. The S26 series gets updates for 7 years so after that I will look at upgrading again.
Hardware changes are no longer huge leaps like they used to be. With devices no longer being functionally obsolete every few years squeezing as much life as possible is the new game.
My old devices end up being used for dashboards for HomeAssistant or turned into picture frames. So they will live on and still be useful for a long time.