are software updates making our phones obsolete faster than they need to be
I have an iPhone 7 running iOS 10, and it’s still ridiculously fast. There’s almost no lag, apps open quickly, and the phone feels completely responsive.
That got me thinking:
What if the hardware isn’t the problem—what if the software is?
We’re constantly told that old phones are too slow and that it’s time to upgrade. Yet my nearly decade-old iPhone 7 still feels fast because it’s running the software it was designed for.
Over time, software becomes more demanding, adds more background processes, and requires more from the hardware. Eventually, a perfectly capable phone starts feeling outdated and we assume the hardware is to blame.
I’m not saying manufacturers deliberately slow down every old device with every update. But the effect can be similar: a phone that was once perfectly fast gradually becomes frustrating to use.
So what are we really upgrading... our hardware, or the software that made our old hardware feel obsolete?