What is the life expectancy of a mobile phone

dogbert27

What is the life expectancy of a mobile phone?

I have a SE W910i for 2.5 years now and it's starting to act up. It's dropping calls and switching itself of frequently. I still really like the phone but it's starting to drive me mad!

For devices that we pay alot of money for what is the life expectancy that we should be looking for?

tmax

My Samsung X820 is +4 years old now, lost it's volume buttons but otherwise perfect and loving it

Cost €300/ 1500days = 20c per day (& decreasing) .. worth it!

Davy

Their isnt one. It depends on how you look after and how much you use it. Lots of text messages play havoc on a handset over time.

dogbert27

Davy wrote: »

Their isnt one. It depends on how you look after and how much you use it. Lots of text messages play havoc on a handset over time.

Ah! That might be one of my problems as I don't delete.

biko

I've had sets last days/weeks (Chinese ebay crap) and also a Siemens SL45 that I had 6 years no problems whatsoever.

Saint_Mel

I've a Nokia E71 around 1.5 years and its starting to act up over the past few weeks. Sometimes when I recieve a call I cannot hear the person on the other line but they can hear me fine ... Occassionally turning itself off ... Occassionally dropping calls ... and then yesterday, I had a missed call and the phone kind of locked up when I was trying to ring the person bac. I turned off the phone for a while ... about 20 seconds later ... while the phone was off ... the ring tone start playing! Scared the bejesus out of me! HAd to take out the battery to stop it!

old_aussie

I'm on my 5th mob phone since getting my first brick in Oct 1993.

Had new iNQ1 for 14 months and works great.

I expect to get at least 4 years service.

Smcgie

Is it just me or do others believe that companies now (specifically Nokia) are building cheap phones that they know will only last for under a year.

I say nokia as I have stop buying their brand as the last 3 phones I bought (circ €100) all lasted under a year for software/speaker/microfone & button defects.

Saint_Mel

Smcgie wrote: »

Is it just me or do others believe that companies now (specifically Nokia) are building cheap phones that they know will only last for under a year.

I say nokia as I have stop buying their brand as the last 3 phones I bought (circ €100) all lasted under a year for software/speaker/microfone & button defects.

Yep, they seem to just last long enough until your eligible for an upgrade ... and a new contract with your provider

Offy

Most new mobile phones are designed just to cover warranties so 1-2 years for the cheap ones and 3-4 years for the more expensive ones. That does not mean they will last only 1-2 years. When a product is been tested for the open market it goes through whats called 'endurance testing'. Various methods can be used for this like HALT, HASS, etc. Keeping in mind that most mobile phones are given away free or for close to free, so cheap electronic components are generally used. If the mobile phone passes the endurance testing it can be released to the open market but that doesnt mean it will last ten tears. Believe it or not we engineers sometimes design products ONLY to last a fixed period of time. This keeps the costs low and everyone (nearly) wants a bargain these days so the quality is generally sacrificed.

Lurching

Davy wrote: »

Their isnt one. It depends on how you look after and how much you use it. Lots of text messages play havoc on a handset over time.

I wouldnt really agree, my cousin has a cheap nokia thats about 2.5 years old with over 30,000 texts sent and still going strong.

ardmacha

Lots of text messages play havoc on a handset over time.

Perhaps you'd like to clarify why?

Saint_Mel

ardmacha wrote: »

Perhaps you'd like to clarify why?

I did notice on the E71 that having a lot of saved messages did slow things down when trying to open message. In my case it was taking 5-10 seconds for each message to open. I deleted a shed load of old messages and that sped things up enormously

Hank Scorpio

You could get 10 years + service out of the 3210 - Battery would need replacing though:)

Our man in Havana

+1

I still has a fully working Nokia 5110. Must be around 12 years old now.

Firetrap

There could be an element of that to it - I'm thinking of a few people I know who owned Nokia 3310s for years. I think you need to drive stakes into their circuit boards to kill them off :eek:

Phones have gotten a lot smaller and more sophisticated though and I think that compromises their robustness.

dogbert27

Well I think I found out why my phone has started dropping calls. I have to leave it in the car as I can't bring it into the office. With the weather lately it's been really hot in the car and when I go out to make a phone call it drops calls but later in the evening when it's in ambient conditions there's no problem making calls.

Johnny Storm

ardmacha wrote: »

Perhaps you'd like to clarify why?

I assumed he meant wear and tear on the key pad ?

coolmoose

have a treo pro the past 2 years, and though it's been through the wars (including a crash) it's still working away fine, nothing amiss. which is unusual for a palm, considering my older treo's (680 & 650) broke my heart in the short periods I had them.

in general i've found that people who spend money on a higher end model seem to get longer out of them.

godtabh

I've a 6310i from probably 2003 and its still going strong. Only use it from time to time