Our smartphones rarely last more than a few years in our hands before ending up in the closet. However, the lifespan of a phone can far exceed the 2 to 3 years granted to them. A phone is not necessarily old after a few dozen months.

Small miracle in the world of Android smartphones: the Dutch company Fairphone began, at the end of November 2021, the deployment of an update on its Fairphone 2, a 6-year-old phone. It's sad to say, but in the world of smartphones (and especially Android smartphones), 6 years of updates is a real luxury.

In general, Android smartphone manufacturers offer between 2 to 4 years of major updates (from one version of Android to another) and little more for security updates. Even Google only offers 5 years of security updates on its Pixel 6. Fairphone therefore does better than all Android manufacturers.

What is an "old" phone?

Of course, the Fairphone 2 will only receive Android 10 (a two-year-old version of the operating system), but this allows the phone to continue to receive security patches for some time to come, which prolongs its life. Only downside, the phone will not be able to take advantage of the new features of Android 12 immediately. The exceptional longevity of the Fairphone still raises an interesting question: when is a phone considered "old"?

The age of a technological object is all relative. It is very likely that your TV is older than your phone or that your portable speaker has already had a few good years on it. But when it comes to phones, that's another story. According to an Arcep report published in July 2021, in France "the individual duration of use of smartphones is estimated between 23 months and 37", i.e. between two and three years. The pace of renewal of our smartphones has certainly tended to slow down in recent years, but mathematically a phone more than three years old (since it was put on the market) could therefore be considered "old". In any case, old enough for the first buyers to get rid of it.

If your phone looks like this, it may indeed be "old"

But what do we mean by old age, exactly? And is it possible to fight against this frenetic pace of renewal?

Security first

The first useful question to ask yourself, to determine if your phone is old, is: is it still updated? Smartphones are constantly connected to the Internet, so it is essential to keep them as up to date as possible to protect them against malware and other viruses that may be lying around.

As we said, the reputation of Android manufacturers is not radiant in the sector. Other than Fairphone, no company in the industry tracks beyond 5 years, whether for major updates or security updates. It is, however, the sinews of war. The brand new features of an operating system are not essential, protecting it from security threats is much more.

At Apple, the situation is different. The company is known for providing long-term monitoring of its devices. iOS 15 (released in September 2021) is for example compatible with the iPhone 6s released in 2014. No one is providing better monitoring in the mobile world for the moment.

The first data to take into account is therefore this one. If your smartphone is still updated, its life is far from over. It may not have the latest hyped features, or a fourth camera, but that doesn't mean it's outdated. The lack of application of certain manufacturers in the follow-up of updates unfortunately condemns certain phones to become old prematurely. To make the most sustainable choice possible, therefore favor manufacturers offering the best monitoring (Apple, Google, Samsung, Oppo).

What about performance?

The other sign of a phone's old age is declining performance. Sometimes a phone is a little less responsive after a few years of existence. An application that takes a few seconds longer to load, or signs of slowdowns within the interface, can appear after a few months or years of use.

Again, the disease is not incurable. If your phone is experiencing some signs of weakness, try cleaning up your apps. Some may be straining the processor in the background. If your storage space is full, also consider deleting some files. Some smartphones rely on storage space to offer an extra amount of RAM. If memory overflows, performance may be impacted.

On an iPhone, changing the battery can boost performance

Battery wear may also slow down the performance of your smartphone, as Apple explained in 2017. If you have an iPhone, consider checking the battery status in the Settings app, Battery then Battery Status. If it is worn and your phone is idling, it is possible to change it.

On the question of performance too, the age of a phone is relative. If your mobile is really in agony when you open the Google application and you have nevertheless done your best to remedy the problem, then perhaps it is indeed time to change it. But by taking a little care of your mobile, it is possible to give it a second youth. A drop in performance does not mean that a smartphone is good for retirement.

Phones are often abandoned, not outdated

As we have seen, the "old age" of a phone depends on several factors that will be more or less aggravating depending on your case. Some, such as the duration of updates, do not depend on the clientele, but on the goodwill of the manufacturers.

That being said, it is rare for a smartphone to be really "old", if it is less than 3 years old. As Fairphone and Apple prove, the lifespan of a smartphone can easily reach 6-7 years. Smartphones are more often abandoned than outdated today. Abandoned, first by manufacturers, who can and must do better on the issue of tracking updates, and by consumers who change mobile phones by keeping their old phones in a drawer "just in case".

According to a report by Ecosystem, the organization in charge of collecting electronic equipment, in March 2020 there were more than 100 million smartphones sleeping in the drawers of French women and men. It is obviously not forbidden to change telephones (even if slowing down the rate of renewal would be good for the planet), but there are solutions such as recycling, reuse or reconditioning, which make it possible to extend the duration of smartphone life.

It is also important to put pressure on the industry to change its habits. On a consumer scale, this may simply mean choosing a brand that provides updates for the long haul. Monitoring has improved in recent years, but we are still far from a truly sustainable and relevant model. Legislative efforts, such as the circular economy law and the repairability index, have also been put in place.

To clearly answer the question proposed at the beginning of the article: there is no precise date on which a smartphone becomes old. It depends on the goodwill of the industry and the sacrifices customers are willing to make. 37 months seems to be the symbolic date of "old age" for a smartphone. But it is possible to change that.