After a couple of years of trying to get my dad to switch from a battered and bruised iPhone 8, I wondered to myself why. If it ain’t (too) broke, don’t fix it, but I thought about what would be the oldest phone I could actively consider using daily.

This is not a question intended to be detached from reality, and even saying it out loud feels like the ultimate first-world problem. There are millions of people who will make do and mend or use a phone for almost a decade. Being completely honest, were I not testing out the latest technology on a regular basis, I’d almost certain I’d be in the same boat.

When doing an inventory check recently, I picked up the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and I’ll be honest, it felt great. I figured this could be the phone for my dad, but alas, he has found switching from the button-centric iPhone 8 to on-screen buttons a little tough.

Instead…I felt a kinship with the device. It was my “main” phone for almost 18 months from launch until the Pixel 9 series launched, and I switched over as my carrier deal came to a close. It probably isn’t a shock that it felt great. Maybe it helps that Samsung hasn’t really done much to properly differentiate the Galaxy Ultra devices for a few years, but the point still stands. It’s fast, smooth, has a superb camera, and although a little dinged up, I still love using it. I’d argue it’s Samsung’s best device of the past 5 years.

Even when I used my Pixel 7a recently as a test device for various ROMs and updates, nothing feels particularly slow or annoying. I’d happily use the 7a day-to-day. That’s only a 3-year-old midranger, so again, nothing really insane. To that end, It helps that we haven’t really seen any major hardware evolution on “slabphones” for, what, like 7 or 8 years? We’re all using the same apps, basically the same screens, and not much else.

We know that people hold on to their phones for longer now than at any other time, which begs the question: what is the oldest phone you’d comfortably use, and what are you currently using daily? Use the poll below and the comments section to give us your thoughts.

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