The greatest telephones you should buy in 2025, like the superb iPhone 16 Pro or Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, include huge value tags. Even extra budget-focused telephones, like Google’s Pixel 8A, nonetheless price a fairly penny. Whichever telephone you purchase, you may get the perfect worth from it for those who use it for longer, spreading that expensive buy out over an extended interval, reasonably than upgrading each couple of years.
Doing this is not simply higher on your financial institution stability, it is higher for the planet too; upgrading your handset much less usually means fewer telephones being produced and shipped whereas fewer outdated telephones find yourself in a landfill. The excellent news is that firms like Apple, Google, Samsung and others are supporting their telephones for longer, that means the software program will stay protected to make use of for years to return.
The remainder of it, then, is as much as you. Keeping your telephone in good working situation for the seven or eight years of software program assist it’d obtain takes some effort, loads of care and some key methods.
Here then are the highest issues you are able to do to assist your telephone final so long as potential.
Watch this: How to Make Your iPhone Last Longer
Install all obtainable updates
Using a telephone that now not receives safety updates merely is not protected and needs to be averted. Previously it was widespread for a lot of Android producers to assist new telephones for less than two to a few years, however now you may discover telephones just like the Google Pixel 9 collection coming with seven years of software program assist. Sadly, some extra reasonably priced telephones like the brand new OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite nonetheless solely obtain a couple of years of updates. If you are shopping for a brand new telephone, be sure you verify how lengthy it’s going to be supported as this gives you extra worth for cash all through the telephone’s lifespan.
Updating your telephone to the most recent safety replace will assist preserve hackers out and preserve your telephone freed from malicious software program that might creep in and decelerate your telephone. Most telephones will routinely immediate you to put in the most recent updates (and you must), however for those who’re on an older telephone, head into your settings menu and scroll all the way down to Software Update and click on to see if an replace is on the market.
The identical is true on your apps, which may even must be up to date to stay appropriate with the model of iOS or Android you are utilizing. It’s good observe to permit apps to be routinely up to date within the background, but when not, be sure you go into your app retailer of selection and verify that you just’re operating the most recent variations.
Use a case
If you have simply purchased a shiny new iPhone the perfect factor you are able to do to bodily shield it’s to place it in a case instantly. It’ll not solely preserve it protected do you have to unintentionally drop it, however it’s going to additionally assist preserve it from selecting up micro scratches from the keys or cash in your pocket.
A display screen protector is a good concept too, as as soon as your telephone’s precise display screen turns into broken, there’s little you are able to do to assist it. If you get a nasty scratch on a display screen protector, you possibly can merely change it, preserving the underlying telephone trying contemporary as a daisy for years to return. Even for those who do not plan on preserving your telephone for years, preserving it trying contemporary might enable you promote it for extra on the used market when it is time to improve.
Replace a drained battery, not the telephone
Your telephone’s battery will step by step put on down over time, providing much less battery life per cost than it did when it was new. This is true of all telephones. Some older telephones might have batteries that solely provide 50 p.c of what they as soon as did. You might even obtain warnings out of your telephone that your battery cannot provide the mandatory energy and so your processor could also be throttled to compensate.
Worry not, because it’s fairly straightforward to switch the battery your self on most telephones to present it a complete new lease on life. iFixit sells quite a lot of kits and third-party alternative batteries to swimsuit an enormous vary of telephones, so in case your battery is on the way in which out, it is price seeing for those who can swap it out your self.
The iPhone 6 with the outdated battery eliminated and all traces of the glue cleaned off.
There are quite a lot of locations you possibly can take your telephone (not all of them are particularly legit) to have your battery changed — and even different elements like a damaged display screen — and this could possibly be a very good possibility to contemplate for those who’re not particularly assured about your expertise with a screwdriver.
Offload outdated apps and pictures you do not want
If you have had your telephone for years then odds are it is fairly clogged up with 1000’s of pictures of your folks, your pets or the plates of meals you have eaten over the time you have had it. It’s additionally probably you have bought quite a lot of outdated apps and video games you downloaded on a whim, performed with for a couple of bus rides after which moved on to the subsequent cell gaming sensation.
An absence of storage can have a detrimental impact in your telephone’s efficiency total and may imply there’s not sufficient room obtainable for essential software program updates to be put in. It’s price going via your archives, backing up the pictures and movies you wish to save to the cloud, and eliminating something in your telephone that is needlessly taking over area.
If you have had your telephone for a very long time and it is actually operating slowly, it could even be price backing up all of your vital information and doing a full manufacturing unit reset, beginning contemporary and solely putting in the necessities you want.
The satisfying removing of grime out of your telephone’s charging port.
Clean out your ports
Finally, give your telephone a very good cleansing as it could have surprisingly useful outcomes. Pocket fluff could be a actual downside on your telephone, with the charging port specifically usually getting clogged up with bits of nonsense. The result’s that if you plug in your charger, it could’t fairly join and because of this, your telephone will not cost.
It’s straightforward to suppose that one thing has truly damaged — the charging port itself, or the cable — however actually it could possibly be so simple as the port simply being stuffed filled with lint. Get a picket toothpick in there periodically and try to ease out any grime and particles you discover to make sure your charger can match with out having to be aggressively wiggled.
It’s additionally price utilizing an outdated toothbrush (clear and dry) to softly brush away any particles you would possibly discover across the audio system and microphones to make sure you can clearly hear — and be heard — in your telephone calls.
