How to Make Your Phone Last Forever: 6 Simple Tips
OK, maybe not ‘forever,’ but the average American phone is only used for 2½ years. This guide could help you keep yours working a lot longer.
3 min
THE MARS rover Opportunity, launched in 2004, was only designed to complete a 90-day mission. But thanks to the efforts of many engineers and scientists, it wasn’t until 2019, 15 years later, that it finally stopped sending updates to NASA.
The more these scientists worked on the device, the more connected they felt to it, says Janet Vertesi, a sociologist of science and technology at Princeton University whose research included NASA’s rover programs. After all, she said, “you don’t just go to the Genius bar and get another one.”
Her reference to Apple’s Genius bar is telling: No matter how connected we get to our phones, most people accept that they’ll soon seem obsolete. The average phone in America is only used for around 2½ years, according to data published by intelligence platform Statista.
But a smartphone can last much longer. I should know. I used a Pixel 2, which came out in October 2017, as my primary phone until this summer. I loved how well the small phone fit in my hand, was happy enough with the photos it took and appreciated the speedy Android apps. My friends occasionally teased me for using the “dated” gadget (“Aren’t you a tech journalist?”). Unfortunately, it stopped receiving software updates this fall. It was time to shop for a new phone.
I ended up getting the third-generation iPhone SE from 2022. I like its smaller size, and that Apple promises it will get software updates for at least five years. To try to keep it for longer, I reached out to experts for advice.
Save Your Phone’s Life: Easy-to-Follow Tips to Keep It Going
Tip 1: Check for updates.
Your phone stores info about every aspect of your life. Without security updates, it’s all at risk, says Thorin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy organisation. Apple offers software upgrades for at least five years and security updates for longer. This year’s Google Pixel eight will get updates through 2030. Samsung promises security updates for four years minimum.
Tip 2: Put a case on it.
Every expert I spoke with said that getting a case and a screen protector are the most important steps to maintaining a phone’s life economically. Investing in this combo rarely exceeds $50, while repairing your screen can top $200.
Tip 3: Clean your filthy, disgusting charge port.
If you’ve ever had trouble getting your phone to charge, even with endless cord fiddling, you might have thought it kaput. But the port itself, whether Lightning or USB-C, might not be broken. Try gently inserting a straightened-out paper clip along its sides to see if it’s full of pocket lint and random dust. (A can of compressed air works too.) Then, use a lint plug, a removable piece of rubber that can sit in your port, to prevent more buildup.
Tip 4: Monitor your battery health.
“Many problems that appear to be defects in [a] phone are really problems with dying batteries,” said Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association, a New York-based trade group that advocates for right-to-repair laws. You can check your battery’s health in the settings menu on both Apple or Android phones. If your iPhone says your battery’s “Maximum Capacity” is 80% or less under “Battery Health,” it’s probably time to replace it.
Tip 5: Know your repair options.
If you do need to replace a battery or screen, don’t accidentally overpay to fix it. Apple has a tool on its website that will quickly estimate the cost of common repairs for your specific phone. (It says it will cost $69 to repair the battery on my new SE.) You can maybe get things fixed cheaper at local shops, but there might be quirks. After a non-Apple repair person replaces an iPhone battery, for example, your phone might send a warning it’s “unable to verify” whether it has a “genuine Apple battery.”
Tip 6: If all else fails, repurpose.
When your phone’s maker declares it obsolete, and stops sending software and security updates, don’t just accept the death sentence. Compromise on some of its capabilities. Start, Klosowski says, with a factory reset, and update your OS as much as you can. Then, you can download apps that will let your phone replace or augment your primary devices. It can be a dedicated alarm clock, smart home hub, remote control, digital picture frame, or even an extra camera for your home security system.
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The federal budget has rattled property investors. But the biggest mistake isn’t the tax changes, it’s the conclusion many are drawing from them.
2 min
The recent budget has forced a reckoning for property investors.
Negative gearing now restricted to new residential builds, the CGT discount gone and on paper, the numbers look different.
And many investors are responding by pivoting toward yield, prioritising cash flow over capital growth in a way that property strategists say misses the point entirely.
“The debate has shifted to yield versus growth as if they are opposing forces,” says Abdullah Nouh, founder of Melbourne-based buyers’ agency Mecca Property Group. “But that framing is itself the mistake.”
Nouh, who works with high-net-worth families and investors on long-term acquisition strategy, argues that capital growth remains the primary driver of genuine wealth creation and that the post-budget environment has made quality assets more important, not less.
The numbers make his case plainly. An additional $500 per week in rental income is welcome. A prestige asset appreciating by $1 million over a market cycle is transformative.
These are not equivalent outcomes, and portfolios built around yield at the expense of location and land value tend to generate income while wealth stands largely still.
The more nuanced shift Nouh is seeing among sophisticated investors is a move toward assets where both outcomes can be engineered simultaneously – established homes on substantial land in quality locations, where the existing dwelling can be repositioned, rental returns improved, and the underlying land value compounds independent of what sits on it.
For investors with existing equity, commercial property is also entering the conversation in a more serious way.
Prestige industrial assets, medical centres and long-leased essential retail offer income profiles that residential property in most capital city markets cannot currently match: longer lease terms, tenants covering outgoings, and greater predictability than the residential tenancy cycle.
“The investors who build lasting wealth are rarely the ones who chased yield or growth exclusively,” says Nouh.
“They are the ones who built a strategy they could sustain – one that generated enough income to hold quality assets through multiple cycles while those assets compounded in value.”
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