I’ve reviewed phones for 10 years. Don’t waste your money upgrading in 2026

I’ve been reviewing and writing about smartphones for over a decade, and while it has been a dream come true to do this for a living, the past few years have left me jaded. It’s not because I’ve lost interest in the space; I think it’s more about smartphone makers drip-feeding us so-called “upgrades” and marketing them like it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. Quite frankly, I’m fed up, and I think a lot of people are too.

Phone manufacturers have trapped themselves in this annual cycle where they are now expected to launch a new product, year on year, and it’s somehow supposed to be vastly better than the one before. That’s obviously a near-impossible feat, and as expected, it rarely (if ever) happens. Instead, what we end up getting are “new” smartphone models with higher prices, minor hardware upgrades, and very little to no innovation.

We’ve had years like this before, but 2026 has so far had some of the most boring and uninteresting phone launches yet.

Google’s Pixel A series has been my go-to recommendation for the budget-conscious buyer, but this year, the Google Pixel 10a was a huge disappointment for me. It’s still one of the best phones at $500, but it’s also nearly identical to the Pixel 9a that came before it. Minor hardware changes and some new software tricks aside, I don’t see why Google even bothered launching the phone.

Next up, Motorola’s 2026 Razr series got some new colors, tweaks to the hinge, and a switch to larger silicon-carbon batteries — but that was the extent of it. What’s worse, the base Razr 2026 jumped in price while cutting down on storage. It’s also worth noting that while silicon-carbon batteries offer greater capacity without bulking up the phone, there are some downsides to this tech.

Samsung’s Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus have once again been largely ignored, with all the limelight shed on the Ultra model. The base S26 suffered the most, as not only does it keep getting more expensive, but it also has to fend off competition from Samsung’s own Galaxy FE series. Even Samsung’s latest foldables, like the Galaxy Z Flip 8 and Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra, are largely unimpressive compared to their predecessors and are now more expensive.

I could go on, but you get the idea. Apple definitely makes the cut, too, but I feel that’s a whole other can of worms to get into. New smartphone launches have stopped being exciting because there’s little to get excited about these days. One brand that truly shook up the US market was OnePlus, but sadly, that honeymoon period is now over.

While a shiny new gadget makes for great headlines, the simple fact is that we just don’t need new smartphones every single year. In our very own survey, more than 44% of respondents voted that they keep their phone for three to five years, while over 28% voted for keeping it for over five years.

In my own family, I have folks happily chugging along with a OnePlus 9RT and a Nothing Phone 1, with little to no complaints. I’m a sucker for value for money, so I picked up the CMF Phone 2 Pro on sale for myself, and it does almost 95% of what my Pixel 10 Pro XL does, based on my general usage habits.

Another factor deterring users from upgrading their phones more often is that software support now lasts for years. Six to seven years of OS and security updates have become the norm for most of Samsung’s and Google’s recent launches. Getting the latest version of Android ensures that apps and their features remain compatible with your phone. Apple has been the frontrunner in this regard for years, and it’s nice to see the rest of the industry finally following suit.

There’s also the fact that the vast majority of Android apps and games don’t require the latest hardware to run optimally. Apart from Apple’s launches, when was the last time you saw a game being demoed or used as a showcase during an Android phone launch? We hear a lot of talk about how a new Android phone has X% better CPU and GPU than the previous one, but how often does that really affect your usage?

Some of the most downloaded games from the Play Store in the last decade seem to be Candy Crush Saga and Roblox, going by a quick Google search. I don’t see the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor making this gaming experience any better, when compared to a chipset from three years ago. Plus, many of the interesting features in SoCs often go unused or underutilized, simply because the brand might want to market its own version of the tech or it simply ignores it.

Smartphone makers can definitely learn a thing or two from the camera industry, where succeeding models generally follow a two- to four-year release cycle. There are exceptions, naturally, but imagine if we got a new Android flagship from a brand, once every two years? Would that really be so bad?

That extra year could motivate brands to deliver some truly meaningful hardware upgrades. Software could be better refined and more polished right on launch day, rather than delivering a half-baked experience with critical features set to arrive months later. Processor manufacturers can take more time to create more efficient products, rather than just going with a die shrink, boosting clock speeds, and calling it a day.

The marketing spend for every new smartphone launch is also huge. Imagine all those thousands of dollars that can be saved and put to better use in creating better products, if manufacturers simply broke free of the yearly cycle.

Someone has to take the first step, but I don’t think anyone has the courage in this climate, given the industry’s delicate state right now. Everyone’s reportedly feeling the heat as demand is low and the cost of components is sky-high.

2026 is hopefully not a total wash, though, as we still have the Google Pixel 11 series and Apple’s iPhone 18 series to look forward to. Pixel Glow on the 11 series looks interesting, and I’m thrilled that Google is making notification lights on phones fashionable again. We should also get Apple’s first-ever foldable, dubbed the iPhone Ultra, and it’ll be interesting to see how this compares to the Galaxy Z Fold 8’s form factor.

There are still interesting things happening in the smartphone space, but on a much smaller, less impactful scale than we used to see. And as a fan of the industry, it hurts to see.