Why Does Your Smartphone Seem to Slow Down As You Get Older?
Most of us slow down as we age. We are like regular cars, like old cars or hair dryers, that work less efficiently over the years.
But digital gadgets, especially smartphones? We expect them to act quickly. Forever!
In fact, smartphone performance degrades over time. Take, for example, my daughter’s experience with each of her iPhones over the past few years. When everyone was over a couple of years old, they showed clear signs of age, including stuck screens, apps that loaded slowly or didn’t load at all, and text messages that didn’t get delivered.
Smartphones are sluggish for several reasons. According to Mike Gikas, who has tested and tested smartphones for over a decade, “The main reason phones slow down over time is that operating system updates often leave old hardware behind. Companies are also updating applications to take advantage of faster processing speeds and more efficient architectures. ”
And for owners of older smartphones, Gikas says, “this often means that a new version of a favorite app will run a little slower than an old version of the same app. Moreover, the features they like may no longer be supported. “
In most cases, this process is gradual but continuous. Gikas notes that the hardware of older smartphones is gradually losing its capabilities after updates to operating systems and applications. It can start with the loss of one function in the application. Then the application itself will not start. Eventually, he notes, the phone itself will lose its ability to use the app store. At this point, you will not be able to download or update any applications.
Here are the most common reasons why smartphones slow down with age:
On older phones, there are many applications that hinder performance:
Most new phones come with several applications. But once you get your new phone, who doesn’t want to download every cool new app you see? According to Android Central, it is best to remove the ones you are not using so that they do not use up precious processing resources on your phone’s processor, be it an Android phone or an iPhone.
Too many applications are running in the background:
Another common reason that slows down older phones is the presence of many applications running in the background. This is a surefire way to drain your phone battery quickly. Techtimes.com offers to explore setting your Android phone to see which applications are most consume charge the battery. Double-tapping the Home button on an iPhone lets you see which apps are currently running and swipe up to close them, although this process can be counterproductive as a way to save a dying battery, as we wrote earlier .
Lack of storage space:
As your phone ages, you inevitably eat up most if not all of your available storage, unless you’re obsessed with checking how much space you have left on your phone and cleaning it up accordingly . But 9to5mac.com says that the use of the phone with a small amount of memory available or not it will lead to a slowing down of the phone that is true for computers. Tip: Remember how many photos and videos you shoot as they quickly take up space. If there are too many of them, upload them to your computer hard drive or cloud storage to free up space.
Cellular network updates only benefit new phones:
You will often see ads for networks with higher speeds. But they usually won’t affect your old phone. “Cellular operators are constantly tweaking their networks to make them faster,” says Gikas, “and there are faster Wi-Fi standards.” But Gikas says that only newer phones will experience a speed boost, which would possibly make your older model slower in comparison.
Perception:
Smartphone experts point to another reason why we think our older phones are slow. Many speculate that consumer expectations for newer, more powerful phones actually influence how they perceive existing phones. “It’s psychological,” says Gikas. “The new phones are really faster, albeit only by a split second. But that’s enough for some people to notice that the phone in their hands feels slower than their friend’s cool new phone. ”