Should I Buy a New Phone? 5 Signs It’s Time to Upgrade

When should you buy a new cell phone? It’s not always easy to tell. While the average lifespan of most smartphones on the market today is a little over 2 years, we often live with our phone’s quirks for significantly longer. So how do you know if your phone is officially past its prime? Here are 5 signs it’s time for an upgrade:

 

1. You’re Constantly Running Out of Battery

Your phone is fully charged when you head to work, you’ve diligently applied all our tips to increase your battery life, and yet your phone battery still craps out by lunch time. When your cell phone battery needs constant top offs throughout the day, you know there’s a problem. The latest iPhones and Androids feature batteries with a lifespan of approximately 500 charge cycles. This means, there are only so many times they can be recharged. And because most cell phones on the market today feature built-in, un-removable batteries, you have to replace the entire phone when your battery is maxed out.

 

 

2. Your Phone Keeps Randomly Shutting Off

We’ve all experienced it. You’re sitting at your desk and you tap your home screen to check the time and you notice your phone’s gone black. It’s the random shutdown. The random shutdown is often caused by poor quality apps. We recommend uninstalling apps you rarely use or are from questionable makers. You should also check that all your apps are using the latest software edition (and that your phone software is up to date too). If you’ve updated your software, rebooted your phone, and charged it fully, but it’s still shutting off for no apparent reason, that’s an ominous sign that your phone’s battery or other internal component is damaged beyond repair.

 

3. Your Phone Doesn’t Listen to You Anymore

There’s nothing more infuriating than a cell phone that’s painfully slow to commands. An unresponsive iPhone can be a hardware or a software problem. It’s often caused when the glass digitizer (the physical part of your iPhone’s display that processes touch) stops working properly, or when the phone’s software stops properly communicating with the hardware. Check that you’ve installed the latest software update, deleted unnecessary apps, photos and files, and optimized your device’s settings. If you’ve done all that and your phone still doesn’t respond to your taps and swipes – or does so haphazardly – it’s time to let it go.

 

4. Your Screen is Cracked

So you dropped your phone past your warranty coverage. Once you’ve overcome the feelings of dread and inadequacy, it’s time to assess the damage. If your screen is only gently cracked – we’re talking a thin line or two – it’s not a big deal. You can keep using it until any one of the other ailments described in this post kills your phone. If, however, the crack looks more like a spider web or if an abstract painting, it’s definitely time for a new look.

 

 

5. You’re Always Low On Storage Capacity

If you’re app happy, you’re probably going to need a phone with a large storage capacity. Even the smallest photos and the simplest apps can accumulate over time, taking up huge amounts of space on the standard 16GB of phone storage available on your phone. If you find yourself constantly deleting photos and apps to get rid of the pesky “not enough storage” alert, you may need to upgrade your phone to one with 32 or 64GB to maintain your #selfiequeen status.