Maggie Evans 
If you bought a $1000 phone in the last couple of years, the only reason to upgrade today is if you want to get a device that folds. Modern smartphones have peaked, which is bad news if you’re hoping to find a device that does more than your current one, but it is good news if you’re hoping to save some money. Because smartphone development has reached a plateau, it has never been more viable to keep using the same phone for 3+ years, or even longer.
However, if you want to enjoy the savings that come from not upgrading your phone, you need to make sure your current device won’t die in the near future. Here are some tips that can help extend the lifespan of your phone.
Prevent falls
Gravity is your phone’s greatest enemy if you want it to keep working for years to come. And the best way to make sure your phone won’t fall is to have it anchored to your body. Wrist and neck straps can make it virtually impossible to drop your phone. And neck straps come with the added advantage of letting you carry your phone around without it taking up any pocket space.
If a strap doesn’t sound interesting, you could invest in a smartwatch instead. A significant portion of phone drops happens when pulling the phone out of a pocket, and checking your notifications on your wrist can reduce how often you need to draw your phone.
Get a phone case
It’s hard to overstate just how good a grip case is at keeping your phone safe. Not only can these cases absorb some of the impacts whenever a phone is dropped, but the grippy rubber material they are made from also makes it much harder for your phone to slip off smooth surfaces.
The rubber also increases the grip between your fingers and your phone, making it harder for you to drop the device. The latter has become more of a concern in recent years, as the trend of manufacturers adding mirror finishes to phones has produced some of the most slippery devices the market has ever seen.
Get a screen protector
As this website showcases, a good anti-shock screen protector can greatly increase your screen’s chances of surviving a drop. And that is a must for anyone holding on to an old phone. Not only are screen replacements expensive, but for niche devices, even finding replacement screens becomes difficult after a few years.
Preserve the battery
Battery replacements are also expensive, and on old devices, they eventually become a must. But you can extend the lifespan of your battery by installing battery data management software and by using fast charging as little as possible.
Your battery’s lifespan is measured in charge cycles. As a result, finding ways to get more done with a single charge can help you delay the need for a battery replacement.
Learn resource management
Old phones often begin to stutter due to having too many files in storage and too many apps trying to hog the device’s RAM. Resource management apps can help you clean up useless files from storage and kill background apps that are using your RAM. These two actions can go a long way toward helping your device run smoothly for longer.
