Most people wait 3-5 years before upgrading their smartphones

[BSim500]

You do know that physical buttons will fail with use, just normal use. Every-day like pressing of the buttons will eventually kill the buttons depending upon how well they're built.

As others have said, I have never experienced "physical button death" on any phone, tablet, Kindle, old MP3 player, shaver, PC keyboard, TV remote control, Bluetooth mini keyboards, mice, controllers, etc. They are typically rated for tens of millions of activations (that will far exceed the life of a typical non-removeable battery). So unless you're doing something seriously wrong, it sounds more like a personal excuse to buy another Flagship phone than any factual survey.

Same goes with "but who could possibly want more than 64GB store" A: A lot of people for a lot of reasons. In fact 128GB Micro-SD cards are now the most popular size. Again, this sounds like you're simply looking up the maximum typical internal memory size of typical "form over function" Flagship phones that are 'too posh' to give users any kind of flexibility, then dictating arbitrary limits around that and demanding users lower their expectations to match the lowest common denominator to try and sell "less is more" on the back of another price hike. That 'elitist snobbery' based marketing stuff worked a couple of years back, but as the article topic states, people are starting to see through that stuff these days as being little different to the gushings of audiophile magazines.

 

[DaveBG]

Not too many people would agree to having such an outdated device. And dont get me wrong, I dont mind having an older device, but not being able to run new apps/games is a bit disappointing. Plus the camera your device has is simply horrendous. There is too much money in mobile market. Meaning there are new better cameras, better speed etc every few years.
A 5 year PC is something I am alright with. But a device old as yours...
There are too many sacrifices made to own that phone. There is also a talk im hearing about mobile carriers like Tmobile adding new frequences making old phones obsolete.
I havent looked into that but if true, that is simply unacceptable. You are paying for new better coverage you cant use then.

Well I do not use the camera that much. My Note 2 has decent camera even for today which is perfect for documents which I find its use most often. Never had a problem with it. I do not make selfies too.
As for the apps all apps run on this phone because I have Android 8.x ROM installed. The only problem is that it is a bit slow.

 

[Gypsygib]

I used to upgrade every two years when the contract ended but after getting an S9plus, I think I can keep it for a while longer. I hate notches/holepunches and actually don't mind a small chin/forehead. It's very useful for holding the phone in landscape mode when watching vids without touching the screen.

Also, I like my headphone jack, companies seem to be making changes just for the sake of distinguishing the phone from a previous design. But notches and lack of headphone jacks have the opposite effect companies are looking for, it makes people more reluctant to switch the phone they have, at least for me. Phones like the s9 are almost a perfect design. Tiny bezels, big screen, no compromises. The only design change I'd be excited about would be bringing back the replaceable battery.

 

[ISNeko]

I just buy a brand name phone around $100 every three years when the battery dies because I'm not savvy enough to use a heat gun to replace batteries.

 

[crz6662]

Physical buttons? Nope, those can break with use...
...prepared to lose the waterproofing...
...one more port to break...
...your phone goes flying....

If you're that clumsy that you somehow manage to break all the physical buttons on your phone, and somehow snap off its headphone port, and regularly fling it round the room, and on top of all that want it to withstand the direct blast of a pressure washer, then it sounds like this is your ideal phone (link). ;-)

That's pretty inexpensive. If it was portable, I'd buy one. Lol

 

[EClyde]

Hardly an upgrade more like ya gotta cause nothing works no more

 

[smartroad]

It is interesting though.

Physical buttons? Nope, those can break with use; better to be touch-buttons so that they don't break with age.

I recently upgraded from my Nokia 8 to a S10e because the capacitive buttons on the N8 stopped working. I lost the finger print reader, home button, back button and what ever the other button is called.

Hell I have my old Nokia 6310i and that still works okay, Snake is still the only phone game you need! LOL

 

[Shake]

I'm still rocking the note 4 and happy with it.
Last note with a removable battery.
It still does everything I need it to.

 

[ShagnWagn]

I did read it multiple times, but nothing in your comment says anything about the s10e; it only says "I got a S10 instead of the S10," so you committed a typo there, buddy.

You are correct, and I apologize. I know I wrote the "e", but it must have been removed in my edits somehow. Obviously I meant a different phone with the words "instead of". Thank you for catching that.

 

[lazer]

One thing not mentioned in the article is that I do not buy the newest model, rather I buy the last newest model. When the new model comes in, the prices fall on the old new model so that is what I buy.

I am one of the older users and see no need to upgrade a phone as long as it works.

 

[Sigit]

Uh I don't like the viewpoint of phone as consumable.