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The story
In a thread on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo” (Live Everything) board, posts poured in from users who’ve been sticking with the same smartphone for over four years. Some claimed even longer: five years with an OPPO Reno5a, six years with a Redmi Note9s, and one person even said they used an iPhone 7 for ten years. The sheer number of people who never bothered to upgrade became a hot topic. While some pointed to diminishing hardware improvements and the hassle of migrating data as reasons to hold off, others brought up battery degradation and the recent unveiling of new foldable phones — showing that people’s motivations to upgrade (or not) vary widely.
What people said
My Reno5a started randomly rebooting on its own, the screen would freeze, and the battery degraded so bad it died almost instantly — had to reluctantly switch
It's easy and over quick though
(btw I'm on iPhone)
Yeah, because you eventually get left behind on OS updates
Unless the battery gives out, I don't feel any need to upgrade
It was easy to use, I liked it
These days, honestly, the price is about the only thing that's different
I used to replace my flip phone every year
Same with PCs — every time the OS got updated, I'd buy a new one
Smartphones these days barely improve in performance, so there's no real need to upgrade
The battery dies after about 2 years
So my replacement frequency is actually pretty high
But they're cheap, so I don't really mind
Motorola's batteries have always been garbage
Colors: Warm Gold White, Black, and Nishino Red, plus a limited-quantity ceramic special edition. Pricing starts at 10,999 yuan (approx. ¥255,000). The ceramic version, with 16GB+1TB storage, costs 15,999 yuan (approx. ¥372,000).
https://k-tai.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/2139056.html
https://k-tai.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/news/2139108.html
Looks like it'll break within half a year
No idea about Android though
You CAN use it that long, but you end up wanting a new one anyway
Phones from over 10 years ago would go from 15% to 0% in like a second
I'm still using my X3 GT 🥺
Most phones these days are so damn huge it looks exhausting to use them
Are that many phones really that huge these days?
Opposite for me — Pro Max size just feels like the normal size now
Apparently some units have caught fire recently, so be careful
Forget degradation — Xiaomi's software optimization is garbage, so even with a huge battery it drains fast
Switched to an OPPO Find X9 last month before the price hike
After 10 years, the leap forward is honestly insane
Ten years is impressive
Background and Talking Points
Surveys from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and MM Research Institute also show the average smartphone usage period climbing year after year — from around two years in the early 2010s to a level today where surpassing four years is no longer unusual. Behind this trend are rising device prices, along with the fact that generational gaps in CPU and camera performance have become harder to notice day-to-day. In the thread, the dominant view was that “even five years in, nothing much has changed” — but posters also noted that what actually pushes people to upgrade isn’t a performance gap, it’s things like battery degradation, mysterious reboots, or anxiety about falling behind on OS updates. While holding onto a phone longer is certainly economical, one point the thread didn’t touch on is that once a manufacturer ends support, security updates stop too — meaning a long service life alone doesn’t guarantee a device stays safe to use.
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo) thread “Guys who’ve used the same smartphone for 4+ years lolololololololol.”
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