Google Pixel

Here’s just how often our readers said they upgrade their Google Pixel

Damien Wilde | Apr 26 2021 - 5:30 am PT

Last week we asked you just how often you upgrade from one Google Pixel to another. It was a popular poll, with over 8,000 responses officially recorded — although many more left us a comment describing their process of upgrading from one device to another.

While the votes weren’t spread quite as evenly as we had expected, the most common responses weren’t a surprise either. However, unlike your iPhone counterparts, Google Pixel owners are less likely to hold on to their device for quite as long.

It seems as though Google Pixel owners fall into two major camps — upgrade once every two years or once every three years. These options shared 30.46% and 27.07% of the total vote respectively. Given that most cell-phone contracts last for 24 months across the globe, it comes as no real surprise that many people will upgrade after two years.

On top of the contract scenario, two years is often long enough to see meaningful hardware improvements. That said, the leap from Pixel 3 to Pixel 5 isn’t quite as obvious given the genuine similarities in overall device power.

What is surprising is just how many people are happy to hold on to their device until it fails. From an environmental standpoint, this is excellent. Given that the Pixel series hasn’t had the best track record with regard to longevity and durability in its short history, this is actually a double-edged sword. Still, 22.13% of you out there are hardware holdouts.

A fairly small 8.37% of readers claim to upgrade their Google Pixel every single year. We’d wager this may have fallen given the fairly minor improvements and, in many cases, downgrades from the Pixel 4 series to Pixel 5. Given how short the Pixel series has been available, it’s understandable that only 7.05% of you out there are looking to upgrade every four years. That would mean that some of you out there with the likes of the Pixel 2 onwards along with those waiting until their device fails are sticking it out for the foreseeable future.

The only other notable is that of the “other” category of Google Pixel owner. You told us things like, “I upgrade as long as the Pixel is a high-end phone” and that you have looked elsewhere as a result. Google’s focus on the a-series and the chipset downgrades from the Pixel 4 to Pixel 5 has been a real sore point for many fans. A lack of a proper “XL” variant was also cited numerous times. That is what makes the lower 4.92% figure so surprising, maybe former owners felt no reason to respond to our original poll.

We didn’t ask just what specific Google Pixel device people were actively using, so it’s not entirely clear just when people may be looking to upgrade. With Google launching a confusing 2020 lineup and the Pixel 5a 5G set to effectively be the Pixel 4a 5G+, then we could see an even greater skew come the latter end of 2021.