Life of a smartphone?

[mikeymikec]

My wife has been having intermittent problems (wifi related seemingly) with her HTC Desire S and friends of hers think that smart phones only last a couple of years at most anyway.

Has anyone here used smartphones until the phone developed problems, if so, how long did the phone last?

My HTC Desire C is just over a year old and I haven't had any fault-type problems with it yet.

 

[notposting]

I think my son pushed it over the edge, but the digitizer on my ancient (2010 lol) OG Droid is shot now (or possibly a cable connection in the slider, I suppose?).

 

[T_Yamamoto]

I think my son pushed it over the edge, but the digitizer on my ancient (2010 lol) OG Droid is shot now (or possibly a cable connection in the slider, I suppose?).

Yeah. After 2 years, my cable broke so i had to upgrade.

 

[corkyg]

Hard to generalize something that really depends on the user and usage.

 

[Berliner]

Smartphones are not made to last. Even if the hardware can still hold up, and at least the battery will usually not, the software will be outdated.

If you expect more than two years, you should consider buying a normal phone and a computer

 

[ibex333]

Smartphones are not made to last. Even if the hardware can still hold up, and at least the battery will usually not, the software will be outdated.

If you expect more than two years, you should consider buying a normal phone and a computer

I sort of disagree... My Droid 2 easily lasted 2.5 years and then I sold it. My refurbished BlackBerry Bold 9000 (with a ball - not a touchpad) was a tank of a phone. Indestructible and I used it 3 years and then sold to someone. (which I really regret).

I think a quality phone must last at least 3-4 years with no issues. I don't mean it should remain competitive with whats in the market(which would be impossible) what I mean is, it should remain in working order. If a phone cant do that, it's not a quality phone and not one I would buy.

The phone in the OP, HTC desire, is a crappy phone IMO. Maybe ok for a non-poweruser but I'd never buy it. It's one of those.. Entry level/budget phones. Even an old iPhone would be a much better investment... or even a Samsung Captivate...

Here's a snippet of a quote for gsmarena:

"... i have this phone but seriously this is a shitty phone full of problems heating problems,low internal memory ,bad camera ,no over the air update to 2.3,less mb of ram only 570 or something like that. its just not worth buying this phone..."

When you get a smartphone, either buy the best, buy used, or get a flip-phone. Those hardly ever fail. There is no "getting a smartphone on the budget" type of thing when it comes to smartphones.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Smartphones are not made to last. Even if the hardware can still hold up, and at least the battery will usually not, the software will be outdated.

If you expect more than two years, you should consider buying a normal phone and a computer

My LG G2X would like to have a word with you. Based on the Tegra 2, it works just fine for internet surfing. Haven't really tried gaming though except for the PS1 emulator, but gaming is what my 3DS is for anyway.

I'll probably only upgrade when my phone breaks or is otherwise unusable, same as with my PCs.

 

[JeffMD]

My oldest device, an ipod touch 3g is working as fine as day I got it, although the battery life is really shortened. It is mainly just my alarm clock now and does not need to be charged for weeks, and music impacts it very little, but games and movies could kill it right quick. I'm sure if I used it I could make it functional with one of the many usb battery packs though (I have one, somewhere).

My LG optimus V phone is fully functional but the amount of internal memory available is so small that it is hard to support apps and even things like the amazon store which can't be moved to an SD card. It is currently being used as an mp3 player.

My current Evo V (Evo 3d) however could live a long time. I have 3 batteries for it, Skinned and cased since day 1 and is in immaculate condition, and aside from intensive games I can't see any apps and games outgrowing the minimum requirements of a dual core and near-HD resolution screen. I would probably say any high end android 4.0 phone with replaceable battery (that is key, that will allways wear out first) will last you long time.

 

[alangrift]

My friend had her original nokia for 11 years until she decided she wanted to go smart and that one crapped out on her in like 3 years so the new phone seem to be dying a lot faster.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Wow, any reason Alangrift decided to bump a dozen old threads??