How long do iPhones really last? Our Personal Experience
The iPhone is the most popular smartphone in the world, with Apple selling more than 200 million units around the globe each year. How long do iPhones really last?
With smartphones, there are two primary factors to consider when thinking about their longevity: hardware and software.
The lifespan of your iPhone’s hardware will really depend on the environments that it’s exposed to and how often the phone is dropped, thrown, splashed or faced with other potentially damaging effects. Barring any manufacturer defects, such as a bloated battery that expands within the device and cracks your phone screen from the inside, your iPhone’s hardware can — in theory, at least — last forever. In fact, an original iPhone still in its box just fetched more than $60,000 at auction.
However, even with minimal wear and tear while using it, both internal and external components tend to wear out over time on most iPhones; this can include the speakers, charging port, and home button on older models. This may require certain parts of your smartphone to be assessed and replaced over time.
How long do iPhones really last?
You should also consider the cost to repair your device when asking yourself, “How long do iPhones last?” Smartphone repair is a sliding scale; generally, the newest phones are the most expensive to fix, while older ones tend to be cheaper. But with aging iPhones, sometimes they can become so obsolete that sourcing parts — and people with the knowledge to fix them — become cost-prohibitive. Because of this, the oldest iPhone that Quick Mobile Repair would recommend before its hardware becomes too out-of-date and unreliable is one approximately 5-6 years old.
However, an even larger concern when thinking about your iPhone’s lifespan is its software, which is controlled directly by Apple and is regularly updated with new features, security patches and conditions throughout the year. These increasingly large updates can slow down the performance of some older phones and outright cause features to stop working. (Apple’s most current mobile software, iOS 16, is not supported on anything older than the iPhone 8, which came out in 2017.)
How each individual software update affects your iPhone will vary on a case-by-case basis, but when both software and hardware longevity is considered, it’s often said that you should get a new iPhone every 2-3 years to ensure optimal performance.
Contact your nearest Quick Mobile Repair location to see if it’s time to upgrade your iPhone. We carry a wide variety of Certified Devices at all our stores nationwide and can help you save up to 30% on your next smartphone purchase.
