Are phones designed to only last the contract length?

DefaultM

The batteries aren't removeable anymore so I'm thinking manufacturers know how often people use phones and they know that average contract length is 24 months, so they're designed to become useless after 2 years.

I got an iPhone 6 in 2015, absolutely love it and planned on keeping it long after the 24 month contract to save myself some money.
Its now 1 month until my contract ends and the battery life all of a sudden is non existent whereas it was fine a few months ago.

I don't know what would be more worth it now, replacing the screen (I broke it) and battery, buying a new iPhone 6, or just taking out a new contract.

If I take out a contract it annoys me how £40 a month is great value at first when you've got a brand new phone, but then you're paying that 18 months later when your phone is dying.

Winny_Pooh

I've just upgraded but my Samsung S5 still works perfectly after 2 & half years.
What may be an issue is all the Apple bloatware in updates that slow your phone down and run processes in the background (just a guess) that are killing the battery. 

Check your push notifications & backup sync settings etc

Flink_Poyd

No

capo4th

It's usually written into the software to sell more phones

DefaultM

I don't update the firmware so I don't think it's that. It's been asking me to update to ios 10 for months now.

boogieman

My iPhone 6 is four years old and still on the original battery. Holds its charge fine. Afaik you can replace the battery without too much trouble anyway; I changed out the one on my old i5 for a tenner and my wife's still using it. 

ThePrettyDamned

Iphones are notorious for the slow down when a new one is released - new software comes out, and it slows down the model a couple of generations old so much it effectively forces an upgrade. 

The batteries vary in quality - some will last longer than others on random chance. 

Mine in the nexus 4 doesn't last as long as it did, but it's about 4 years old now, used heavily every day. Whereas some folk had theirs get stuffed at 18 months. 

Danny1969

It's a quick and easy job to change any iphone battery and they only cost a tenner 

an iPhone 6 screen is only £30 so fixing your phone is gonna be very economical 

Modern batteries are a bit of an inexact science at the mo, the quality in terms of life can vary dramatically. My own battery is 3 years old and doing fine but I have changed batteries for customers after less than 2 years in some cases. 

thomasross20

A lot of the tech for battery power management is done in Edinburgh, and they're designed to last as long as possible. It's amazing the tech that's going in, near zero-power bandgaps, event driven converters as opposed to clocked etc. 

CabbageCat

I'm still using my Galaxy S2 so they definitely can last for more than a couple of years.

digitalscream

I just had an email from EE saying I could get a "VIP" upgrade now (6 months from the end of my contract). The problem they have is that my S6 is still working just as well as the day I got it...better, actually, since I got the upgrade to Marshmallow. The battery lasts well over 24hrs, there's no GPS lag (which used to plague every Android device I had) and performance hasn't dropped at all.

I'll probably end up moving to a SIM-only contract when it expires, and save myself £35/month.

EDIT: With all that said...I may well get a Google Pixel when the time comes. It's not too expensive, and seems like an everything-beater in that price bracket. I'll probably keep the S6, and that'll give me two cameras if/when I finally have some time to start my YouTube career...

bingefeller

What mobile provider are you on @DefaultM?  

If you use BT for broadband you can keep you phone and get a good SIM only deal.  

If it's a iPhone 6, I'd definitely keep it....... I plan on keeping mine for about 5 years.  

ICBM

Danny1969 said:

Modern batteries are a bit of an inexact science at the mo, the quality in terms of life can vary dramatically. My own battery is 3 years old and doing fine but I have changed batteries for customers after less than 2 years in some cases. 

Does it still depend on the number of charge cycles and exactly how full you charge them? I try not to charge mine unless it's at about 50% or below, and unless absolutely necessary because I have to go out and it's not ready, I never charge it to less than 100% full. (This has happened maybe four of five times in the life of the phone.)

I may be being paranoid and modern batteries might not suffer from this, but it's noticeable that my iPhone 4S battery lasted about four years before I needed to change it (thanks again for the help!), and my daughter - who doesn't pay attention to that sort of thing - had one which only lasted two years. On the other hand she does absolutely thrash the usage as well...

Danny1969

ICBM said:

Danny1969 said:

Modern batteries are a bit of an inexact science at the mo, the quality in terms of life can vary dramatically. My own battery is 3 years old and doing fine but I have changed batteries for customers after less than 2 years in some cases. 

Does it still depend on the number of charge cycles and exactly how full you charge them? I try not to charge mine unless it's at about 50% or below, and unless absolutely necessary because I have to go out and it's not ready, I never charge it to less than 100% full. (This has happened maybe four of five times in the life of the phone.)

I may be being paranoid and modern batteries might not suffer from this, but it's noticeable that my iPhone 4S battery lasted about four years before I needed to change it (thanks again for the help!), and my daughter - who doesn't pay attention to that sort of thing - had one which only lasted two years. On the other hand she does absolutely thrash the usage as well...

In my experience, despite what Apple say the batteries perform better if you charge them from 10% or less to 100 % and avoid partial charges. I tend to do the same as you but my wife does a lot of partial charging and her batteries don't tend to last as long as mine on a charge

Legionreturns

My phones last exactly 2 years and 2 weeks. The 2 weeks is how long it takes my daughter to break them when they get handed down

DefaultM

Whereabouts can I get the screen and battery changed for £30 and £10? Apple wanted £85 for the screen so I looked at going to this stall in the local morrisons and he wanted £100?!

octatonic

For fuck's sake, hardware companies don't make things obsolete by design, they aren't fucking you over on purpose.

It is simply Moore's law- hardware increases in processing speed over time and new software takes advantage of that.
If you don't like it then don't update your operating system.

Regarding batteries, you get around 500 charging cycles before performance drops.
New batteries are relatively cheap.

So, either replace your phone every 1- 2 years.
Or replace the battery every 2 years and keep away from regular updates.
It can also help to periodically wipe your phone and set it up again from scratch.
And don't install stuff you won't actually use.

Hoof

ICBM said:

Danny1969 said:

Modern batteries are a bit of an inexact science at the mo, the quality in terms of life can vary dramatically. My own battery is 3 years old and doing fine but I have changed batteries for customers after less than 2 years in some cases. 

Does it still depend on the number of charge cycles and exactly how full you charge them? I try not to charge mine unless it's at about 50% or below, and unless absolutely necessary because I have to go out and it's not ready, I never charge it to less than 100% full. (This has happened maybe four of five times in the life of the phone.)

I may be being paranoid and modern batteries might not suffer from this, but it's noticeable that my iPhone 4S battery lasted about four years before I needed to change it (thanks again for the help!), and my daughter - who doesn't pay attention to that sort of thing - had one which only lasted two years. On the other hand she does absolutely thrash the usage as well...

As I recall reading somewhere lithium-ion batteries like to be treated almost the opposite to Ni-Cad. Where we used to religiously fully charge and discharge old batteries in camcorders and the like to prevent cadmium memory (if that's the correct term) modern phone batteries prefer to be charged little and often. I suppose the battery tech in a Prius is on a constant cycle of short charges/discharges.

Phones and most consumer tech do have planned lifespans and planned obselesence (sp?). It's no conspiracy, it's just economics. Why pay for millions of components that will last 10x longer than they need to when a cheaper one will last as long as it needs to?

Tech progresses at such a rate it would be a waste to build things to last. 

Danny1969

That's the cost of the parts .... if your not comfortable changing them yourself then a tech like myself would generally charge £25 labour 

octatonic

ICBM said:

Danny1969 said:

Modern batteries are a bit of an inexact science at the mo, the quality in terms of life can vary dramatically. My own battery is 3 years old and doing fine but I have changed batteries for customers after less than 2 years in some cases. 

Does it still depend on the number of charge cycles and exactly how full you charge them? I try not to charge mine unless it's at about 50% or below, and unless absolutely necessary because I have to go out and it's not ready, I never charge it to less than 100% full. (This has happened maybe four of five times in the life of the phone.)

I may be being paranoid and modern batteries might not suffer from this, but it's noticeable that my iPhone 4S battery lasted about four years before I needed to change it (thanks again for the help!), and my daughter - who doesn't pay attention to that sort of thing - had one which only lasted two years. On the other hand she does absolutely thrash the usage as well...

You might find this useful:

What is battery memory effect?

Battery memory effect is about batteries remembering remaining charge if you don’t let them go all the way to zero too often. So a battery frequently charged from 20% to 80% might ‘forget’ about the 40% that’s left uncharged (0-20% and 80-100%).

Sounds crazy but that’s sort of true - but only for older nickel-based (NiMH and NiCd) batteries, not the lithium-ion batteries in your phone.

Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries don’t suffer the memory effect so you almost need to do the opposite: charge them often but not all the way throughout the day, and don’t let them drop to zero.

DefaultM

Hmm I might give the battery a go. I watched a video on changing the screen a bit ago but it looked like it would be difficult. I've completely smashed it and it looks like I'd have to pick out hundreds of little pieces.

Are there different quality parts or if I just go on ebay and type in iPhone 6 battery will any do?