Here’s what you do with your old phone

Upgrading to a new phone is always an exciting experience when you go through your honeymoon where you enjoy a shiny new device. It’s especially fun if you haven’t upgraded in a few years, as the differences between the old and new devices can be significant in terms of performance, battery life, and more.

But what do you do with your trusted old device after you’ve upgraded? Will you use it again or do you keep it as a backup phone? Do you trade in your device or give it to loved ones? We asked this question to readers a few days ago. That’s how you voted.

What do you do with your old phone once you’ve upgraded?

Results

We released the poll on March 1st and a total of 3,992 votes were cast at the time of writing. The most popular option was to keep it as a secondary or backup phone, with nearly 40% of respondents choosing this.

The second most popular option (at 30.2%) was selling or trading this option and it’s easy to see why. Samsung and Apple have great trade-in deals when upgrading. Selling the phone right now will give you a ton of money to spend on whatever you want. The three most important options were rounded off by handing over the old phone to a loved one. 19.6% of the readers surveyed did this.

Related reading: Selling a used phone – do’s and don’ts

Only 7.4% said they would reuse their old phone. There are many uses for an old phone, such as: B. a smart alarm clock, an emulation machine, a smart picture frame and much more. Still, it seems like most Android Authority Readers would rather get rid of their old phone or save it than reuse it. After all, 3.5% of the readers surveyed voted for “other”.

It’s also interesting that more people voted to get rid of their phone somehow (49.8%) than holding it in any form (46.7%).

Remarks

• Smackos: Well, my last old phone (Honor 9 Lite) became a semi-permanent WiFi hit for the mother-in-law, so we could video chat with her on an old iPad. It just can’t get by with modern devices at all, and it won’t budge from the old-style Nokia phones. We could only show her how to swipe and answer a video call via facetime on a tablet.
• KEDAR: I put it on the display shelf
• Walter Kowalski: Usually sell on eBay and get a good price. Take good care of the phone, use a protective case, and clean the screen.
• Kevin Hoang: My older phone is used for hours of video calling and streaming devices for my TV
• Majid Soaimel: I keep it in a drawer with all my other old electronics and I rarely come back to them, if not because of nostalgia.
• Ant_B: I know it sounds so irresponsible, but all of my new phone purchases so far have been due to irreparable damage to my older phone or the damage could be repaired, but the cost of the repair just wouldn’t be worth it in the long run so I’ll just throw it in a drawer somewhere. Now that I’ve gotten older and learned about e-waste, I definitely plan on selling my future phones to third parties as soon as they become a problem.
• Albin: Previously misused – even my first LG (Android G) with a tiny 3.2-inch screen replaced a battery-free Sansa as an MP3 / audio book player. Much better with APKs for OSM mapping, a good little camera, and the boat browser. No SIM card, but 11n WiFi and Bluetooth, and recently an OEM battery for about $ 5 on eBay. My second ZTE 5 “(Android L) is still receiving Play Store updates, is in the car holder for offline navigation and has a Pay / Go SIM card for use as a travel burner in the USA.
• Americans: They end up in drawers. I feel embarrassed about giving them away because I can’t be sure that personal information will be removed from them. Either that or I physically destroy them.

Thank you for voting on this poll and for leaving comments. It’s always appreciated. You can share your thoughts on the subject through the comments section below.