Should You Skip Your Next Phone Upgrade? Here's The Best Time To Buy

Smartphone users fall into different categories, but the two most common ones are the power users, those who push their phones to the fullest, and the casual, everyday users who want to keep a smartphone for calling, texting, or browsing social media. Power users tend to be tech enthusiasts who are willing to spend more to keep up to date on the latest model. The casual users are those who can safely skip the next smartphone annual upgrade — though, as of late, even tech enthusiasts don't always feel the next annual upgrade is worth it, since some of the hardware and design doesn't offer much improvement over last-gen models. Plus, improvement can be subjective.

For example, someone might not see the Google Pixel 10 Pro as that much of an upgrade over the Google Pixel 9 Pro if they don't use Magic Cue or care about Pro Res Zoom. But there are still times when upgrading is necessary. If you've had your device for over four years, you notice wear and tear on the screen, the battery can't hold a charge, or there simply isn't enough RAM to keep up with the productivity apps you depend on for your job.

Sadly, a lot of the fault comes from planned obsolescence. Planned obsolescence is intentional limitations placed by the manufacturer, which are made obvious by your hardware or software, whether it can't support new features or does so poorly (like AI). Truly, the best time to upgrade is when your carrier or the phone manufacturer is offering a significant discount.

If you are faced with a good deal where you pay barely anything for your next phone, whether that is a carrier-related offer or you capitalized on one of the big manufacturers' events, then it becomes almost a no-brainer to upgrade. Sadly, smartphone prices will never trend down if you're looking to do a direct upgrade, as the cost of components has not lessened over time. Rather, it tends to get more expensive.

The best offers will depend on whether you buy your phones unlocked or carrier-locked. For unlocked deals, smartphone manufacturers like to hold annual or biannual events that add great trade-in offers. Apple usually has a September launch event where it unveils the newest Apple products, including the next iPhone series. Samsung has Unpacked events in the summer and winter; during those events, you might see some aggressive trade-in promotions that give you extra credit for pre-ordering an upcoming device. Google has a similar launch event, named Made by Google, that also has inflated payouts and bundles that help you toward getting the new phone.

Carrier deals happen sporadically; these can be tied to holidays, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or back-to-school in the June to September period. Sometimes they come during pre-order windows when a major manufacturer announces their next lineup. It can also happen during inventory resets, so you might find older phones being sold at a clearance price.

Unfortunately, hardware doesn't last forever, nor does software, especially if the manufacturer drops support for it. Batteries become harder to replace, RAM struggles to keep up with the driving demands, or extra bloat is introduced in major software updates. Usually these issues shouldn't start cropping up for years. However, outdated software and lack of security updates can pressure users into upgrading as well. Still, if your device is under Samsung's and Google's umbrella, this shouldn't be as much of a concern since seven years of updates is more than enough time to plan for your phone upgrade.

However, if you're with a manufacturer that only offers two to four years of software support, you might be itching for an upgrade sooner rather than later, especially if you do personal banking on your phone. Another telling sign that you need a new phone is performance. If your apps start crashing, freezing, or even heating your device during regular use, the underlying internal hardware — the CPU, GPU, or RAM — may no longer be good enough.

This doesn't happen to every app, but if you're a gamer, you might start noticing the growing demands if you're trying to play at the highest settings for maximum FPS. Games like "Wuthering Waves," "Zenless Zone Zero," and "Genshin Impact" can really put your hardware to the stress test, so getting a new phone that efficiently runs either a Snapdragon 8 Elite or A19 Pro can really bump up the experience.