The iPhone 17 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra are among the best phones you can buy right now thanks to their excellent camera systems and powerful processors. And while they certainly represent the best mobile tech around, you’ll pay handsomely to put them in your pocket. Even more budget-focused phones like the Google Pixel 9A or the Nothing Phone 3A Pro still cost hundreds of dollars and with purse strings remaining tight the world over, it’s never been more critical to get the most value from your purchases.
The best way to do that is simply to keep using your phone longer, spreading that initial costly purchase out over more years, rather than upgrading often.
Doing this isn’t just better for your bank account; it’s much better for the planet, too. Upgrading your handset less often means fewer phones being produced and shipped while fewer older phones end up in a landfill. The good news is that companies like Apple, Google, Samsung and others are supporting their phones with software updates for years longer, meaning the phone you buy today will remain safe to use for years to come.
The rest of it is up to you. Keeping your phone in good working condition for the seven or eight years of software support it might receive takes some effort, plenty of care and a few key strategies.
Here then are the top things you can do to help your phone last as long as possible.
Updating your phone to the latest security update will help keep hackers out and keep your phone free of malicious software that could creep in and slow down your phone. Most phones will automatically prompt you to install the latest updates (and you should), but if you’re on an older phone, head into your settings menu and scroll down to Software Update and click to see if an update is available.
The same is true for your apps, which will also need to be updated to remain compatible with the version of iOS or Android you’re using. It’s good practice to allow apps to be automatically updated in the background, but if not, make sure you go into your app store of choice and check that you’re running the latest versions.
Use a case
If you’ve just bought a shiny new iPhone the best thing you can do to physically protect it is to put it in a case immediately. It’ll not only keep it safe should you accidentally drop it, but it will also help keep it from picking up micro scratches from the keys or coins in your pocket.
Worry not, as it’s pretty easy to replace the battery yourself on most phones to give it a whole new lease on life. iFixit sells a variety of kits and third-party replacement batteries to suit a huge range of phones, so if your battery is on the way out, it’s worth seeing if you can swap it out yourself.
There are a variety of places you can take your phone (not all of them are especially legit) to have your battery replaced — or even other components like a broken screen — and this could be a good option to consider if you’re not especially confident about your skills with a screwdriver.
If you’ve had your phone for a long time and it’s really running slowly, it may even be worth backing up all your important data and doing a full factory reset, starting fresh and only installing the essentials you need.
Clean out your ports
Finally, give your phone a good cleaning as it can have surprisingly helpful outcomes. Pocket fluff can be a real problem for your phone, with the charging port in particular often getting clogged up with bits of nonsense. The result is that when you plug in your charger, it can’t quite connect and as a result, your phone won’t charge.
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