Let me know if this sounds familiar: Your phone’s battery starts draining faster than usual about a year after you buy it. With a new model releasing in just a couple of months, you figure the only logical course of action is to upgrade. A few hundred bucks or a new long-term contract later, you’ve got a shiny new smartphone, only you realize it’s a lot like your previous one, complete with the same eventual problems.
The cycle continues.
What if we told you it didn’t have to be this way?
The onslaught of new phones, laptops and headphones releasing annually can play to your fear of missing out and make it hard to tell whether you actually need an upgrade or have simply been convinced you do. But as someone who’s reviewed these things for a living for well over a decade, I’m here to tell you that you’re probably upgrading more often than you need to and for reasons that are likely fixable without spending a fortune on a brand-new device.
The reality is you don’t have to jump ship to the next big thing every time your favorite tech brand (or carrier) says it’s time to. To that end, I’ve distilled 13 years’ worth of testing, researching and shopping for just about every gadget under the sun — in addition to talking to several tech experts — to bring you the following purchasing playbook. The goal? To help you diagnose actual problems, make the most of your existing tech and buy something that you truly love once it is the right time to upgrade.
