{"id":40837,"date":"2023-10-20T16:40:02","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T20:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=40837"},"modified":"2023-10-25T09:56:55","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T13:56:55","slug":"the-average-lifespan-of-a-smartphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/20\/the-average-lifespan-of-a-smartphone\/","title":{"rendered":"The Average Lifespan of a Smartphone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isabel Rubio<\/a> (via Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

While Marcos Fernández managed to last six years with his previous device, the average lifespan of a smartphone is much lower. In Europe, for instance, it’s about three years, according to the European Environment Office (EEB). This figure is far less than the 25 years that a phone would need to last to offset its negative impact on the environment. The EEB highlights that extending the life of all smartphones in the European Union by just one year would save 2.1 million tons of carbon dioxide on an annual basis between now and 2030… “the equivalent of taking more than a million cars off the road.”<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

So why does a person, on average, change their smartphone every three years? One of the main reasons is “esthetic obsolescence, the constant search for something new,<\/a>” explains Mário Barros[…]<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

What fails most with cellphones is the battery, followed by the operating system and the screen, according to a 2020 study by the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

SkyBlueRedditor<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Some weeks ago, my iPhone 12 started to show some glitches. First, it was the Wi-Fi, which became grayed out in the settings. Shortly thereafter, the Bluetooth followed suit. Before long, my cellular data began acting up, only to completely stop functioning after a few weeks. Finally, the iPhone began spontaneously rebooting.<\/p>

Having AppleCare+, I naturally expected this to be a minor hiccup. I packaged my iPhone and shipped it to the Apple Repair Center in Elk Grove, California, expecting my device to be returned to me in working order. I was in for a rude shock.<\/p>

Apple’s technicians allegedly found that my device had been “damaged or modified” in such a way that it wasn’t covered by Apple’s Warranty, AppleCare products, or an Apple Service Program, and thus they refused to repair my device.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

Remember, sometimes you need to push through, persist, and speak directly to the right people to get your issue resolved.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Kyle Wiens<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\n

We need to have a serious chat about iPhone repairability. We judged the phones of yesteryear by how easy they were to take apart—screws, glues, how hard it was to change a battery. But repairs have gotten trickier, by design. Software now limits many basic iPhone repairs. That’s why we’ve revised the repairability score for the iPhone 14 from a recommend<\/em> 7 out of 10 to a do-not-recommend<\/em> 4.<\/p>\n

Although we enthusiastically<\/a> awarded it a solid score at launch last year, thanks to its innovative repair-friendly architecture—of which we remain big fans—the reality for folks trying to fix these things has been very different. Most major repairs on modern iPhones require Apple approval. You have to buy parts through their system, then have the repair validated via a chat system. Otherwise, you’ll run into limited or missing functionality, with a side of annoying warnings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n