How long have you had your phone for? (Picture: Getty)
These days, a smartphone lasts anywhere from two to eight years, depending on the brand, upkeep, and usage.
It’s easy to tell when your phone is coming to the end of its life because things seem to start going… wrong.
Maybe your phone is dying more quickly, or it keeps glitching, or maybe it’s just too old to download the latest software.
With major players in the smartphone game like Apple and Android releasing new phones every year, it’s not exactly hard to find a new model to replace it (even if your wallet may not agree).
So, what are the warning signs your phone is coming to the end of its life?
1. Battery drains quickly
This is a huge indicator that your phone is ready to retire. According to Apple, an iPhone can be fully recharged at least 500 times before the battery capacity drops to 80%.
This means that a phone that could have lasted 10 hours after being charged, now will only survive eight hours off charge.
For Android, batteries are expected to last for two to three years.
Smartphone batteries are made out of lithium-ion, and therefore have a limited lifespan. So if you notice the battery draining quickly, it might be time to replace the battery, or get a new phone.
Your phone battery draining quickly is a major sign your phone is on its way out (Picture: Getty)
2. Your screen is glitching
All of a sudden, you find your phone is unresponsive. Touchscreens are sensitive and therefore can degrade over time, and regular issues are a sign that you should either replace your screen, or get a new phone.
Equally, if you have shattered your screen it will be likely that you will no longer be able to communicate with your device and therefore, you have brought around its death a lot quicker than anticipated.
It is possible to repair a shattered phone, but this can be so expensive it makes more sense just to replace it.
3. It’s slow
Like many things, just like us, phones also get slower with age.
If your phone takes ages to type out a single letter, then it means the circuits are beginning to degrade, and your phone is coming to the end of its life.
However, before you panic, you may want to double check that you don’t have multiple applications running at the same time, which can slow processing capacity and drain the battery faster.
4. Your phone randomly restarts for no reason
You could be in the middle of a call one day and your phone decides that it is the perfect time to restart.
Random reboots are another sign that your phone could be dying (Picture: Getty)
That could be because the battery is too hot or too cold, but if it keeps happening then perhaps it’s time to consider that your phone is reaching the end of its life.
If you want to save your phone, you could always take it to a repair shop to see what they can do, but there are no promises.
5. You no longer get the latest updates
As your phone model gets older, the company may stop releasing software updates that are compatible with your phone.
This means your user experience may become more and more hindered as apps you once loved will now be a pain to use. But that’s not all.
No recent software updates also means less security, which could leave your phone at risk of being hacked as vulnerabilities are no longer patched.
Not ideal, and not one that can be readily fixed.
6. Your phone overheats
Your phone overheating when you’ve barely used it is a sure fire way to know that it’s coming to its end.
If a device massively overheats, it means that its internal components are beyond its normal wear and tear, and unfortunately, it’s on its way out.
If you find out that your phone is definitely overheating, you should also be careful, as its battery could even explode or start a fire.
An overheating phone could explode, so be careful (Picture: Getty)
7. You get ghost touches
When your phone begins to behave erratically with things on the screen moving without you touching it, it’s known as a ghost touch. It’s very unusual for this to be a software issue.
But it can be due to screen or water damage, using a poor quality cable, or some other kind of internal issue.
There is a chance the phone is salvageable, but you should probably prepare for the worst.
First, try replacing the screen protector to check its not being caused by trapped dust or some other pressure on the surface.
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