An interesting report has been published, and it shows that Americans are holding on to their phones
. Reviews.org surveyed 1,000 adult Americans and found that the average American keeps his or her phone for close to two years and five months. The average user responding to the survey has had his/her current phone for 22 months.
What drives the average American smartphone owner to upgrade?
Why do American smartphone users want to buy a new phone? The top answer, listed by 21.9% of the survey’s respondents, indicated that the number one reason for buying a new phone is to enjoy faster performance. Year-over-year multi-core benchmark score improvements for application processors is in the 15% to 30% range. Battery issues were next, listed by 18.4% of the respondents to the survey. New features and a lost or broken phones were the next two responses on the list cited by 13% and 12.8% of survey respondents, respectively.
You might think that many phone owners upgrade in order to have the latest model. That was the reason given to upgrade by only 7.8% of those surveyed. Other responses included:
- Compatibility with new technologies-7.60%
- Insufficient storage space-7.50%
- Trade-in deals or better contract options-5.70%
- Better camera-4.30%
- Other-1.00%
The average cost of an American’s new smartphone is $634. | Image credit-Reviews.org
Parker will now pay a reduced monthly price for his new iPhone without having to pay interest. He says, “Every year a new iPhone comes out, the value of my current phone goes down, whether I keep it in good condition or not. It’s like I’m ‘cashing in’ on my current phone now while it’s still functional and worth something, rather than risk losing all its value.”
By the way, 5.10% of those surveyed were gifted their new phones, and 2.20% said they purchased a refurbished model.
A tale as old as time, iPhone versus Android
The majority of the survey’s participants use an Android phone as 52.1% said that their handset runs on the Android operating system. 47.6% have an iPhone that is driven by iOS, and .30% use neither iOS nor Android. Worldwide, recent data shows that between 71.5% and 74% of phones being used are running Android. This shows how much better the iPhone is received in the U.S.
The average American holds his phone for 29 months before replacing it with a new model. | Image credit-Reviews.org
The survey is based on the answers of 1,000 people who were questioned on September 8, 2025. According to Reviews.org, questions were asked about “information on smartphone ownership, upgrade frequency, reasons for upgrading, payment methods, and device satisfaction. Satisfaction scores were analyzed on a normalized scale of 0 to 5. Respondents were asked to refer to their phone’s screen time report to determine the average number of times per day they check their phones, in addition to how much time in total they spend on their phones per day.”
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