A guide to a longer lasting Smartphone.

Reddit_refugee7834@lemmy.today to Technology@lemmy.world – 156 points –

This is a guide to a longer lasting Android device, from choosing one to how to preserve the life of the one that you have.

Choosing a long-lasting and repair friendly phone:

To get the best shot at longevity, start with a high quality device from a manufacture with a history of long term device support, and one that regularly releases there modifications to the kernel source code. A device that has an unlockable bootloader (XDA developers Forums is a good place to see about ROM support), and is user repairable (See iFixit's Smartphone Repairability Scores) will allow you to keep the software & hardware going the longest. Both the Google Pixels, and Fairphone's line are a good place to start. Fairphone is the USA is sold though Murena

Before you use your phone

  • Get a good sturdy case like an Otterbox

  • Apply a screen protector. I recommend Glass, Sapphire is the best (but very expensive).

Battery

Lithium-ion (LI-on) battery's wear out faster when near the upper and lower charge levels (read why here: Battery University), so avoid charging or discarding the battery fully, aiming for around 20~80% is a good target.
Never leave your phone in a hot car or in the Sun, extreme heat exposure reduces the lifespan of the battery & is generally bad for other components.

Charging

  • Avoid fast & wireless charging by using a older charging block that only outputs a few(1~2) Amps. (to reduce the heat the battery endures)
  • Use a magnetic charging cable to reduce the wear on the plug (Like Volta), you need a bulky case to have it flush to not make the phone uncomfortable to hold though. 
  • When/If you use a regular charging cable don't move the phone around when it's plugged in, movement wears the plug much sooner.
Use a charge limiting feature. (Listed in order of recommendation.)

  1. If your phone has a built smart battery charge management feature, use that. (Most modern high end phones do, including Samsung's, Google's & Apple's)

  2. If you have Root; use ACCA(a GUI for ACC) (Suggested Charging config: Level limit: 85%, Current: 700mA, Voltage: 3800mV)

  3. Buy a switch that can wirelessly cut off power based on charge level:

  • A Chargie by Lighty Electronics is a Bluetooth enabled USB-A power switch, the accompanying APP configures it to auto cut off power based on power draw or charge level. Note that in the newest Android versions/PlayStore restrictions prevent versions of the APP past v2.2.20 from auto enabling Bluetooth, making this solution a little less appealing as you have to leave Bluetooth on you manually enable it.

  • Using an Automation APP like Tasker to turn off a Home Assistant-controlled smart plug when the battery exceeds a reprogramed threshold, is a more reliable method & works for any device.

  1. Install an APP that alerts you at charge levels so you can unplug you phone. (AccuBattery, Battery Guru: Monitor & Health, etc.

Waking & Locking the screen

To reduce the use of the power button, as it's a fail point, although less common.

To wake 

 1. Use the features "Lift to check phone/events" and "Double-Tap to check phone"

 2. Use the fingerprint reader to wake and unlock.   

To lock/turn off the screen  

 1. Use a launcher that support double tapping the home screen to lock it (Nova launcher, Smart launcher, etc.)

 2. Use Googles Quick Tap feature if you have a Pixel or the APP Tap, Tap for any Android to lock the screen. (Note: battery life might suffer)  

 3. Use a short Screen Time out.

TIPS
  • Get a new case to get a fresh look and feel when your tired of the one you have.
  • Read through the comments! There are many good additions from people with different experiences & perspectives.

Edit's: Updated & reformatted several things based on comments <3

31

Really like this!

Only one additional thing that came to mind - get a phone with lots of storage! My two previous Android devices died as a result of EMMC failure, and they had a pretty small onboard capacity (16GB, and 32GB)... my current device is 64GB and I now keep most of my data on a 512GB sd card.

Lots of empty storage space allows the EMMC firmware to perform wear levelling as needed, prolonging the life of this non-replaceable component. Most well-designed Android devices also run a "TRIM" on the internal EMMC storage when the device is idle, a kind of self-maintenance procedure that allows the firmware to keep track of how much space is unoccupied.

For Android users who are curious about the details (or have rooted devices and want to run a trim manually) see here

Thank's for the advice, and being the first replay to my first post! I've retired from Reddit and hope to add value to society without supporting as many companies I disagree with. :)

Liquid screen protectors are useless snake oil, and doubly so when you're putting a real screen protector over the top of them.

Fairfone isn't compatible with most US carriers.

Samsung and some other providers/custom roms as well have a settings option to stop charging at 85%. This will vastly extend how long your battery will last before going bad.

Disable fast charging options. If your phone doesn't have the option, use a charge block that only outputs 5v 2amp. This will also make your battery last longer.

When replacing batteries, 99% of aftermarket batteries are absolute garbage. Either get an OEM replacement (most on ebay are counterfeit) or just know you'll have to replace it often.

I keep my phones for usually 3 to 5 years at a time and in 25 years have never had a power button go bad on me. I also have a lot of equipment to fix laptops, cell phones, etc so I get a lot of people I know bring me their phones when they break, and out of dozens of phones brought to me, I've never had to repair a power button. It's all speakers and charge ports and screen stuff. A volume button once.

Speaking of charge ports: Keep them clean and don't use your phone while they're plugged in. Or at least be mindful to not stress the connection while it's plugged in.

Never leave your phone in a hot car or the sun shining on it through a window. This hurts the battery and causes the adhesive holding down the cable from the main board to the screen to de-laminate. That's what has often happened when a screen has a solid thin line of color going all the way down the screen (looking at you, samsung).

Use the accubattery apk(android) to keep an eye on your battery health and spot apks that are draining your battery the most.

Cross your fingers and hope you can still find a good phone with an SD card slot.

Know someone like me who will fix your phone for you. I do it for people I know just for the funsies. It's a nice hobby.

Thanks for the input, you have a lot of helpful points! I encourage others to do there own research as I have done. In my research I find that liquid “screen protectors” increase the force required to crack the screen, and have add no functional scratch resistance, hence why I recommend the screen protector on top, glass is the way to go, as it will crack hopefully absorbing the force of impact and you can replace it instead on you display :)

Here's what I found in my research about screen protectors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIPOTDUnUfo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhUrevQKFbo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knv5_zc8ghA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S00WsL6cnvw

Your first video is a guy checking one single screen protector on an uneven rubber mat dropping a ball on it and not dropping the ball in the same exact place on the screen protector as the first two. The next two videos have some morons hitting a couple phones with hammers, and in the last video, aside from much of what linus does not being all that well thought out, he never does an impact test.

The three videos you found are very cherry picked and also poorly done, among dozens of others proving the coatings make no difference whatsoever in break resistance.

Also, aside from all the videos showing they don't make your screen stronger, use your danged head. The digitizer (top) layer of your phone screen is around 0.6mm thick. Do you seriously think that a 0.005mm layer of anything at all is going to make your screen stronger? Not possible in the least. And if it were possible, dozens of companies have been making making that junk for the past decade. If it did anything, don't you think Corning would have already been using it on their gorilla glass already? Use your head, man. All that junk can do is make your screen temporarily feel a bit smoother and make it oliophobic again for a few weeks. Putting it on under a screen protector would do nothing at all except make the screen protector not stick as well.

Thanks for checking my sources! I think you made fair points, and the sample size in the one test that seemed reference-able was too small, so I'll edit my post to suggest using a glass screen protector.

Fairfone isn't compatible with most US carriers.

that's a you problem. Fairphone is great!

Unlike a lot of "you" problems, it's not that easy to change. I doubt migrating over a phone is a good idea.

If the carriers it supports have poor or no reception where you live, it's not really any specific person's problem unless you somehow think that an individual is going to come with a solution on their own. Which seems excessive.

1 more...

This is the best summary I could come up with:

When your phone becomes unusable and unrepairable, buy a Fairphone.

Even better, for you, and for the planet, is to buy second hand.

Fairphone offers factory refurbished devices, but they are still ridiculously bad deal. A refurbished Fairphone 4 (a device couple of years old) sells for $30 less than a brand new one. Sure, you still get warranty, but it is a $600 second hand device after all.

I don't know where you got "a couple of years old" from. Do you mean, that the Fairphone 4 in general is a couple of years old?

Because, on the website it says the refurbished devices are: "After less than a month of Fairphoning, the phone is returned" So the Fairphone was only in use for max 4 weeks. I would still count that as mostly first hand :)

5 more...

I don't think I've had a Pixel phone that survived much past the two year mark. They've all had various issues, either problems with the battery/charging or just dying altogether.

I still use them because you can get them for cheaper than most phones, but "longer lasting" is the last adjective I would use for them.

The Pixel 3 I have I got used and it still works, although the back glass is broken and the battery health is 85%, and stopped getting updates around a year ago. I'd say it's 5 years run so far (released October 2018) is pretty good. If you know of any other devices that would be useful for 4~7 years please share! I think high end Apple and Samsung devices would, and they are now committing to longer software support, and are likely to carry though.

Thank you for the tips.

I've been setting a battery charge limit of 85 for a long time now and avoid using the power button by double tapping the screen.

One thing I would add is to disable the ram plus settings. I feel that this option only wears out your phones internal storage and slows things down.

Using an Automation APP like Tasker to turn off a Home Assistant-controlled smart plug when the battery exceeds a reprogramming threshold, might be a more reliable method & works for any device.

This is the method I have been using for years and it works great. I use Home Assistant to manage the automation, the Home Assistant client app for Android (you could use tasker for this) to collect the device telemetry to send to Home Assistant (how it knows when the battery hits 85% or drops below 70%).

I do want to point out there is one small downside to this method: your device charger (and I'm using an Anker wireless phone charging stand as my charger) only works for one device. Example, say my personal phone is charged up to 85%, so I take it off the charger, but my work-issued phone needs to be charged, but when I put my work phone on the charger nothing happens and it doesn't charge because the charger is connected to a smart plug that's turned off because my personal phone is charged up.

Maybe you could add a sensor to the setup so you could tell which phone is on the charger- like an RFID tag on each phone case?

I tried a similar scenario: The phone has a nfc reader built in, so I put the tag on the charger and tried letting the phone read it, but quickly discovered that android can't/wont read nfc tags unless the phone is unlocked, which defeated the elegance of the solution. I hadn't considered buying a standalone reader and attaching the tag to the phones, that sounds a lot more complicated.

Or get an 100-150 euro smartphone and replace when it starts lacking. There is almost no need to buy a 1000,- phone when it will fail in the same time as a 100 one.

Let me chime in that even when you spend $50 on an OtterBox case they can still be crap.