Poll of the week: When and how often do you buy mobile phones?

Results of our poll of the week

We created a total of five different polls on our five domains that cater to different audiences. You read that right. The polls were separate for our readers from Germany, France, Brazil and for our English readers who are primarily from the US, India, and the UK. Let's briefly go through all the results and see how similarly (or differently) NextPit community members from across the world choose their phones!

How often does the community buy a new smartphone?

When asked how often they buy new phones, there were five possible answers. In Germany and France, most of our readers voted for smartphone purchases every two years. This is also the cycle that network operators suggest for their mobile phone tariffs and often the supply of updates for mobile phones also ends after about two years.

As for our English readers, turns out, they prefer to buy new phones when you really need to and are not really keen on the two-year cycle followed elsewhere. Interesting! In Brazil too, this was the top answer with 44 per cent of the respondents saying they only buy a phone when they need to. We did also receive a sizable number of responses that chose the two-year cycle in Brazil as well.

How much money do you plan to spend on new smartphones?

Although readers in Brazil are a little more cautious about the frequency of their smartphone purchases, the majority spend the same amount as in the rest of the countries. A common thread across our survey was that people seem to love phones that cost up to 400 Euros. While Germany too preferred 400 euro phones,  only 36 per cent chose this as an option. The number of people who opted to pay a much higher amount was also high in Germany – at 30 per cent. Staying with Germany, a sizable 26 per cent of our German community members actually do not mind spending more than 1000 euros on smartphones!

This is quite in contrast with our readers from France and Brazil who do not fid flagship smartphones that interesting. Even o English readers are not too keen on expensive flagships – although they did like the Samsung Galaxy S21 series.

What smartphone brands do the NextPit community prefer?

Which brands are most popular with our readers? The surprising answer: Apparently, the manufacturers are not as relevant as we first thought. The option that people chose most in Germany and in English was; "I like to change manufacturers". Yes. NextPit community members are not blind fanboys!

That is not to say that people did not prefer brands. Samsung, for example, was a highly preferred brand in Germany and among our English speaking audience. Impressively, the South Korean brand has the first preference in both France and Brazil. Among our English readers, OnePlus was also a daily popular brand ad came in just behind Samsung

What features are important?

When asked about specific features the liked on smartphones, the answers were, well, a mixed bag of sorts. This might be partly due to the fact that our survey allowed several possible answers. One trend we did observe was that good battery life was an important feature that topped the charts among our German and Brazilian community members.

In France and among our English audience, people tend to want a balanced phone and don't pay attention to specific features. Besides the battery and the all-rounder, cameras are an important criterion when buying a smartphone in the rest of the countries.

Are there too many new smartphones?

Across various domains, the general consensus is that people like having more smartphone options. So, no, the majority of our audience like the fact that we have many smartphone models to choose from. 

You can see all the results of our polls below. Just click on "Show results" and change to the other countries in the language change tool at the bottom right of the page.

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Original Article

Pretty much everyone owns at least one smartphone, and many will pick up a new model this year as well. But do people decide which device to buy? How often do they change smartphones and why do they choose a certain model? Well, that's what we aim to find out using our poll of the week!

The motivation for this poll was the fact that the past few days have seen a flurry of smartphone launches. There were, of course, the three new Oppo smartphones (should we actually ask our readers whether we prefer to write Oppo or OPPO?) in the Find X3 series, from which we've already been able to review the Find X3 Lite 5G. Also newly unveiled this week? The Asus ROG Phone 5!

Xiaomi alone brings out three new devices every week and most of the other manufacturers have either already announced something in the first quarter of the year or are about to launch. So you might ask yourself, who should buy all these smartphones at all or what your plans are regarding a new smartphone purchase.

So today's poll of the week is all about exactly that: how often do you buy a new smartphone, which brands and price segments do you prefer, and what are the technical criteria that influence your decision. Let's go:

Poll 1: How often do you buy a new smartphone?

Now, I am sure local factors affect a lot when it comes to buying decisions. If you ask me, being in Germany, I am sort of conditioned to follow a two-year upgrade cycle as dictated by the subsidies offered by the carriers here.  And personally, I think a two-year-old phone is quite relevant even today unlike the case a decade ago when a two-year-old phone would become hopelessly outdated. I have a Huawei P30 Pro that still feels fresh today and serves me faithfully.

There also seems to be a general tendency to lengthen the amount of time that passes between smartphone purchases, because the hardware just keeps getting better. But maybe my impression is deceiving me and you guys perceive it completely differently.

If you like, feel free to explain your points of view in the comments. We'd also like to know if and how the purchase cycle has changed over the years.

Survey 2: How expensive can it be?

There is no denying that over the years, the price of flagship smartphones has risen steadily. A high-end smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra can cost up to 1,439 euros if you want all the bells and whistles variant. In a pandemic ridden world, that kind of money for a smartphone is a bit too much, isn't it? At least that is what I think.

On the other hand, entry-level and mid-range smartphones have gotten so much better over the years that you can already get really good handsets for under 300 euros, which are absolutely sufficient for many of us. But again, I'm just asking in a tongue in cheek manner:

Survey 3: Nothing comes into my house except ...

I know some of you reading this might disagree but sometimes you don't buy a smartphone purely based on facts. Some of you swear by brand loyalty and are some of you are benevolent enough to forgive your brand of choice even if they end up doing a design faux pas or come up with a product that doesn't really match up to the competition.

That is quite unlike me as I tend to be as brand-neutral as possible and buy smartphones that I like irrespective of the brand. I have owned a wide variety of devices from companies that range from Samsung, Huawei, and LG to HTC and Google. And since I am really old, I have also had the chance to play around with Sony Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens. But now to you: Which brand are you loyal to?

Survey 4: Which feature is most important to you when buying a smartphone?

Some people look at specific features that are important to them before buying a new smartphone. For example, for many it is the battery life that matters the most while form someone else, it is the camera.  Tell us what you have in mind when you decide to buy a new phone. In this poll, you can select multiple options

Survey 5: Do you feel there is too much choice?

Finally, here's a question that goes in a slightly different direction. I mentioned at the beginning that we are facing a flood of product releases this spring, and companies like Xiaomi and Realme in particular have such a large lineup that it seems almost unmanageable.

That's not made any easier by the fact that not every device is offered everywhere, and others are offered in different markets with different names. But that's a topic we can discuss elsewhere. What I would like to know from you, however, is whether you are very confident in looking through all the new models, or whether you rather despair in the face of the choice.

Next week on the 15th of March we will evaluate the survey for you and of course report about the results. So keep an eye on NextPit if you are as curious about the results of this poll!