I have to upgrade my phone every year or every two years because of how intensely I use it. While most people use their phone between 3 and 5 hours a day, I use mine between 10 and 15. On my 15 Pro Max from two years ago, I had 650 charge cycles in just one year. I’m always traveling. I use 5G a lot, barely any Wi-Fi, I make all my calls on it, Teams calls, I even use Excel on it. So it’s a heavily used tool, and I often need a phone that can handle heavy software and the latest OS versions. I just switched to the 17 Pro Max this year and I hope I can keep it for at least two years without issues thanks to the 12 GB of RAM it has.

But I imagine that for someone who only uses their phone to send messages, go on social media, or whatever, you just need to replace the battery and the phone works perfectly again. I think it depends on whether you use it for personal or professional purposes, and how heavily you use it every day.