Aside from the Apple vs. Android debate, smartphone brands often win or lose consumers on price. Flagship phones are bought by those who can afford them; budget handsets are for those who don’t care about the latest features, and everyone else lives somewhere in between.
But according to the latest Allstate Protection Plans Mobile Survey, attitudes about how people buy and handle smartphones have changed dramatically in recent years.
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Watch out, Apple and Samsung
This desire for longer lasting and better performing batteries is reflected in the fact that consumers are no longer chasing the latest devices. Research has found that, instead of upgrading to the latest phone every year, consumers are now stretching the time between upgrades.
Statistics show that 27% upgrade every two years, 23% make the switch after three or four years, and 21% delay upgrading until their phone breaks. The days of smartphone manufacturers being able to count on high sales with each new flagship release are truly over.
This shift towards standardizing battery performance could be a problem for world leaders Apple and Samsung. Since both products are yet to adopt silicon-carbon technology, they may end up being left behind by their Chinese counterparts.
The recent releases of Apple and Samsung phones are a case in point. The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra has a 5,000 mAh battery, while the cell inside the Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max is slightly larger at 5,088 mAh. Neither phone is tolerable, but to put things into perspective, the Oppo Find X9 Pro eclipses both its 7,500mAh battery, and the OnePlus 15 – which packs a similarly large 7,300mAh battery – lasted nearly three days in our tests.
Granted, Samsung has plans to use silicon-carbon battery technology in the near future. “We’re working on it,” the company explained ahead of Galaxy Unpacked 2026, with CEO Sung-Hoon Moon revealing that the technology hasn’t passed “Samsung’s most stringent certification standards.” However, Moon admitted that Samsung may have “lacked strategy up front.”
Will the Samsung Galaxy S27 Ultra come with a silicon-carbon battery? If the findings of the survey mentioned above are anything to go by, it’s a big improvement that consumers have been waiting for.
Camera quality is still important
Besides battery performance and price, the third most important factor influencing purchasing decisions is the quality of the phone’s camera.
Note, camera performance is an area that all phone manufacturers are already delivering in bulk. Cameras with 50MP resolution are common in most smartphones these days, and ultra-flagship models push the limits of what’s possible in terms of vision, resolution, zoom, and post-processing.
Take the soon-to-be-released Oppo, for example. This flagship is at the forefront of camera technology, many believe that its five-prism lens technology may mark the beginning of the end of compact cameras.
Then there’s the newly released Xiaomi 17 Ultra, which incorporates Leica technology to push the boundaries of photography and videography inside a smartphone. Boasting a massive 1-inch sensor (the largest on a phone) and a 200MP periscope phone lens, Xiaomi’s latest phone promises to be the king of camera smartphones for another year.
Environmental concerns
According to research, there is also a growing interest in the environmental impact of technology products, but this does not seem to enter into the growing sales of refurbished devices, which would be the most reasonable performance of this trend.
Despite 65% agreeing that refurbished electronics are more economical and sustainable, only 18% have bought a refurbished phone. The researchers concluded that “consumers support the idea of ​​buying used/refurbished items but find it difficult to trust them.”
Despite not doing so with a clear conscience, people are “increasingly rewarding brands that take visible responsibility for the steps of their devices.” About one-third of people said their purchasing decisions would be influenced by brands choosing to use recycled plastics and recycled glass in their smartphones.
It is important that brands not only appear to be doing the right thing but also follow through on making meaningful changes to the environment. The Fairphone 6 is a good example of this philosophy, and other manufacturers should take note.
Which manufacturer will pull ahead?
The future of the smartphone industry is being fought for on many different fronts, and it will be interesting to see which brands last the longest in the fight.
Apple and Samsung need to step up their game on the battery side of things, and if AI becomes a bigger factor in consumers’ purchasing decisions, then the iPhone maker has a lot to do on that front, too.
Of course, Apple has proven in recent years that well-designed hardware is enough to maintain its large user base (iPhone Air though, the iPhone 17 series is very popular). But consumer loyalty will only go so far if iPhones continue to fall behind the competition in terms of longevity and software capabilities.
Whatever happens, smartphone brands would do well to listen to their customers and act accordingly.
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