Every two years for me. Due to contracts but it also seems thats a good time dofference between hardware. You notice the difference then. Currently using a iphone4s. Hopefully next handset will be the galaxy note 3 ( hopefully UK gets octocore, and the handset accepts ubuntu aswell)

I've had an iPhone 4, for nearly 3 years now. Since the retina display, there has been nothing that has justified upgrading, who notices a quad core processor on a phone when your checking your emails, or playing angry birds? I don't suspect I'll upgrade until apple stop supporting it, or drop it (again) and it breaks

Same as Lee, I've had my iPhone 4 for 3 years now and feel no inclination whatsoever to upgrade at the moment. It does everything I need it to do, as quickly as I need it to.

I used to get 12 or 18 month contracts and whatever best handset for free or small cost to spread payments, and I was quite a heavy user of allowance before the Mrs and I lived together so a £35 pcm contract was OK value. Last time I did that was 2011 for an HTC Sensation but the deals are much worse recently so last as autumn I went SIM only. I like Android but also like my updates, I'm no longer too poor to afford £279 in one go so a Nexus 4 is a perfect fit for me. Does everything I need. Next upgrade will be a Nexus as soon as one comes out which offers something my 4 doesn't. Maybe LTE once that is decent value and good coverage rather than a piss take.

due to the expense of contracts / phones it's every 2 years for me, which is down from the 2 contracts I used to run for Sony Ericsson handsets 6 months apart. my next is my iPhone 5 upgrade to the ‘6’ next summer , missing this years ‘s’ model.

Usually 18 months to 2 years, depending on what sort of contract I can wangle. Seriously considering the N4/SIM only route next though, it's just too expensive to keep getting the latest and greatest phone, to then be stuck with something that doesn't get any updates 6 months after you got it…

Usually, two years, not because of contracts, just to avoid wasting money.

Gunbuster
Usually, two years, not because of contracts, just to avoid wasting money.

Ditto

QOTW: How often do you upgrade your smartphone?

Only when my current phone either fails, or cannot do something that I need to. Thanks to the feedback on Hexus, last time I moved to a SIM-free phone and a SIM-only contract, so there's no real restrictions or pressure to upgrade.

Got a Galaxy S3 when it came out last year, and might be tempted to an S5 or a 2014 Nokia Lumia next year - but they'll have to do something that I cannot do with my S3 (in the case of the S5) or have a brilliant camera (for the Lumia). At the moment the S3 is working perfectly, so I can't see the reason to jump ship at the moment.

Every three years (more or less) :)

I'm on my first smartphone, which is less than a year old, but I'm not expecting to have any interest in upgrading it for another two or three years at least. I do plan on keeping an eye on the various custom roms that people are making for it though, and thus upgrading the software side of things.

I upgrade my phone whenever the one I have at the moment breaks. There's no sense in wasting money on new stuff when I already have things that work.

Just upgraded to an HTC One after using a Desire HD for nearly 2 and a half years. Been meaning to upgrade for a while but always found reasons to hold on until now.

I use to upgrade every two years but now with the prices so high it will only be when my phone dies

2 years for me, I am in the process now, I only go for free phones on £8 a month or less contracts, my HTC wildfire is going and making way for a Nokia lumia 520.

Got my first smartphone this year, won't be getting another for a long time. I'm looking to send this one away for the waterproof nano coating that has been shown at gadget shows because I intend to keep it long enough to be worth the cost.

My phone is mainly for phoning, I know novel idea, with some photos taken here and there… got a tablet for games and news apps. Thanks to my frugal use of the battery it lasts a week on one charge :)

I normally upgrade every 3 or 4 years, only ever had 3 phones so far. My first was a SE T230 that lasted 4 years, then got a SE W902 which again lasted me 4 years (up to 2011), and in the winter holiday of 2011 I bought a Galaxy S2. So following this pattern I guess the Galaxy S6 will be my next phone :)

s2 - s3 is all i've done in the way of smart phones.

Can you upgrade a phone? you can replace it.

Anyway I try for at least 2 years before getting a new 1

kada 2 taon ako kung magpalit ng phone.. hindi naman ako masyadong gumagamit nun e.. mas gamit ko pa din yung PC ko.. yung smartphone ko ginagamit ko lng pangtawag at pang text

that requires you to have a smartphone in the first place, I don't own one :P

Right now it's 3 years before I start looking for a replacement. I think a £500 investment should last at least that long. At the end of this contract I am planning to switch my buying habits by getting a sim only contract and then buying the handsets outright.

hellig
that requires you to have a smartphone in the first place, I don't own one :P

Yea! Fight the man!

I have a dumb tracphone I threw 3 years of service and 8k minutes on for $200. I'm a year into the contract and have 6k minutes left, so my annual phone bill is $60, and less than what most people pay monthly.

If I ever needed mobile internet, I'd get a 4g hotspot. If I ever wanted a PC on the go, I'd take my Nexus 7 in my pocket, it fits.

Bought my first smartphone in March 2012 - Galaxy S1 on Ebay. Switched from Orange to GiffGaff and now pay just £10 a month which suits me nicely.
Got Cyanogenmod installed so have Android 4.1 running on it. Does everything I need.

I may consider upgrading it next year. But for now I'm quite happy with it.

Sunvsmoon
Never, well not intentionally. I get my gf's hand me downs :rolleyes:

Dem pink phones are smart though eh man ;)

My upgrades are definitely less frequent since I got the iPhone 2G (which I kept until the Galaxy S3). Prior to that, I went through a short phase of upgrading every year (to whatever is best at the time of contract renewal). Though sometime I just sold the upgrade. Well, I am not really someone who need the latest or shiniest phone, and since I am not a huge fan of mobile phone games, existing hardware is plenty fast for web and communication apps - which is all I really need.

I upgrade mine every 24 months when my contact allows.

Wish I could get a new BlackBerry Q10 just now but have to wait another 6 months :(

I upgrade about ever 3 years, sooner if something major has changed in that time.

the only smart phones I have had are a first Gen iPhone and I upgraded from that to a Desire HD, I have had that for over 2 years now. So not very often.

Noxvayl
…My phone is mainly for phoning …

If I had to drop a feature from my smartphones, it would be the phone! :)

My first phone contract was 18 months, and I upgraded at the end of it, but that was also my jump from WinMo 6.1 to Android. I then had my HTC Desire for 2 years. Although I had the option to upgrade slightly early, I had to wait until the bitter end becuase I wanted to ditch O2. I now have a Galaxy S3, I expect I will upgrade when this contract is over, but it will depend on whats available… Who am I kidding, new phones are shiny, I'll be upgrading almost as soon as Vodafone let me. :) (I take ages to decide anything…)

You don't ‘upgrade’ your phone when you are on contract. You have finished paying monthly for the first one so they sell you another one which you carry on paying monthly for. I will not buy a new one until my old one goes faulty.I have never had a contract.Never will. Biggest con ever devised (next to similar contracts where you ‘buy’ a car, pay monthly, then at the end of the contract ‘buy’ another.). These are devised to tie you in so that it is difficult to leave without you seemingly losing out.

True. Still wouldn't be without my smartphone though.
I tend to view the contract as buying the phone on credit and they throw in a few minutes.

pipTheGeek
If I had to drop a feature from my smartphones, it would be the phone! :)

Why not get a tablet then, everything a phone does without the phone, and faster.

aderussell
You don't ‘upgrade’ your phone when you are on contract. You have finished paying monthly for the first one so they sell you another one which you carry on paying monthly for. I will not buy a new one until my old one goes faulty.I have never had a contract.Never will. Biggest con ever devised (next to similar contracts where you ‘buy’ a car, pay monthly, then at the end of the contract ‘buy’ another.). These are devised to tie you in so that it is difficult to leave without you seemingly losing out.

I pay £7.50 a month for my contract with 750MB data, 500mins 2000 texts. To me that seems pretty fair.

Would depend how you define a smartphone. Nokia S60 was at some point considered a smartphone, and that's what I'm using. It's an upgrade from a Motorola Defy, which was an upgrade from some Windows Mobile 6.1 phone, which was an upgrade from this Nokia S60 phone I'm using now. So basically I've been upgrading my phone every year or two, but I think S60 kind of lost the smartphone designation along the way. My next phone will likely be a feature phone. I'm still looking at Android smartphones, but the market segment for small Android phones with decent specs seems to be very slim. Who knows, maybe 2-3 years from now I'll be using a small phone accompanied by Google Glass, if that catches on as a replacement for the big screen sizes.

ET3D
the market segment for small Android phones with decent specs seems to be very slim.

indeed - bigger is better apparently.

I've got a Sony xperia T - which was an upgrade from a desire hd late earlier this year. I was happy with the DHD, but wanted to get something with a forward facing camera.

I dont see myself upgrading until the end of the contract - but there isn't much more I want from a phone - 4g is nice, but not at the current prices.

That said, I would like to get a nexus device at some point - but no micro sd and under 32gb of space = deal breaker. I like taking videos, and when it's 720p (or better) quality… you soon run out of space!

Until a couple of months ago, I was enjoying the bliss of a good sim-free contract and regular replacements - I had my previous smartphones (newest-oldest: WP7, BB, iPhone) for 12 months, 6 months and 18 months respectively. Whether I'll last the 24 months of this contract is anyone's guess…

I had a Motorola e1070 a few years back. Then a LG Cookie one December. Then a Samsung Galaxy apollo the following august. Then a desire hd from the following April. Still with the Desire HD at the moment

Noxvayl
Why not get a tablet then, everything a phone does without the phone, and faster.

Texting and size, basically. That and the fact that although the phone part is probably my least used feature, I do occasionally use it.

2 Years, just upgraded my HTC Sensation to the new HTC One. Though my contract had to double to get it :(

I've never ever upgraded a fone. I'm v. weird.

whenever theres a new galaxy s device

Previously it has been towards the end of my contract, so 18 or 24 months. I've never used anywhere near as many minutes as they give me though and the main thing I wanted was plenty of data, but I don't even use as much of that now. So next time I will look seriously at getting a cheaper deal. Only problem is I don't like the iPhone and want to move away from it, otherwise I'd just keep using this. Still got a fair way to go on this contract though, so I'll decide what to do nearer the time :)

When I upgraded from my old HTC Hero a year ago it was unable to run any modern apps even on non stock roms, so at the end of the (very cheap) contract it had to go.

If my One-X is still usable (I should hope it is) then I may well go Sim only unless there is a deal that can lure me in.

Another person here where the phone part is only for emergency use, it is more of a portable browser/texter/3g access point/music player and it currently does all that fine.

What smartphone?

Ever since I've had a contract phone (Dec 2008) I've upgraded every couple of years. First off I had a HTC G1 which quickly became out of date due to how early of a release it was. Once that contract finished I upgraded to a HTC Desire and for a few months once that contract had finished I stuck with it with a giffgaff sim card. However it started playing up and once the HTC One X was out, I quickly upgraded.

I love my One X, but who am I kidding, the second this contract finishes, I'm just going to upgrade again : D

Once every two years. There is no big hardware difference if one changes his smartphone more often. I prefer to upgrade my PC hardware than buying a new phone every year.