Your phone has a death date

May 4, 2025

By Kim Komando

Your phone is dying as you’re reading this. Many people don’t realize that, like milk, condoms or your favorite hot sauce that’s been in the fridge since 2018, your phone has an expiration date.  

Here are the average lifespans for some of today’s most popular phone brands and makes:

• Apple iPhone: 4 to 8 years; iPhones often get 6+ years of iOS updates.
• Samsung: 3 to 6 years. Flagships get 5 years of updates, but budget models tend to peak around 3 years.
• Google Pixel: 3 to 5 years. Pixels now promise up to 7 years of updates (starting with Pixel 8).

To be clear: These are averages. Like dog years or Tinder bios, your mileage may vary.

What’s your number?

Here’s the juicy bit: Your phone’s expiration countdown starts when it’s manufactured, not when you bought it, so knowing when it was built is super important. Here are ways to find out:

• Look around: The manufacture date is often listed on the package. If you tossed it, check the “About” section in your phone’s settings for a date or serial number.
• Serial number: Many manufacturers encode the manufacturing date within these numbers. The site SNDeep.info can help you decode yours.
• Dial secret codes: Special codes and menus can reveal manufacturing information. Dialing *#06# might or might not show your phone’s serial number.

Yeah, I know. This looks like way too much work.

Hallelujah, an easier way

Instead of taking the steps above, head to endoflife.date. This handy site lists the end-of-life (EOL) dates for devices, software programs and others. Some quick links for you to check your phone’s EOL:

• Apple iPhone
• Samsung
• Google Pixel

The links below aren’t for phones, but I thought you might want to check the EOL for your other tech:

• Apple Watch
• Apple iPad
• Android OS
• Amazon Kindle
• Microsoft Windows

This is an excellent site to check before you buy any used tech. If it’s about to hit its EOL date, don’t buy it.

This is serious stuff

Using tech past its EOL date is bad for a bunch of reasons.

• No important updates: Hackers can break into your outdated tech more easily to exploit unfixed bugs and security issues. 
• Crappy battery life: As phones age, their battery performance degrades because lithium-ion batteries lose capacity over time.
• No new phone smell: That sweet manufacturing scent is long gone. (Just kidding, I wanted to see if you were paying attention!)

😳 Now you know the smartphone makers’ dirty little secret. I bet there’s at least one person you know who’d appreciate this fact. Use the handy share buttons below to spread the tech know‑how.