What Happens When You Update A Phone Before Contract Runs Out

"The Times They Are a-Changin'." So sang Bob Dylan, the poet-laureate of rock 'n roll. They are. But the more things change, the more than they stay the same.

Take, for example, phone contracts. Upwardly until recently, nigh of us bought our phones forth with phone service, and most of the toll of our expensive smartphones was buried deep within the carrier "subsidy" that came attached with bondage to our freedom. We were locked into a single carrier (at any unacceptable charge per unit or lack of quality service) until the contract ended.

As of this summer, all major carriers (with the exception of AT&T) have done away with carrier subsidies. You can bring your ain phone. Of course, that means you're spending $400-800+ outright on an unlocked phone, and probably paying usurious interest to Visa or Mastercard.

The alternative is that some carriers are selling the phones to you on installment plans (often with no interest), for $20-35/mo, effectively loaning you the amount to pay off the phone. The gotcha -- you lot have to have a phone program with them, and if you cancel the phone program, your remaining balance on the phone becomes a pumpkin -- due immediately.

Into this mix is a new an interesting question. Once your contract is over, what if yous just kept your erstwhile telephone?

Earlier this week, I wrote After 2 years of Android, is information technology time to switch back to iPhone? After a caste of indecision (there are benefits to both Android and iOS), I tossed out this comment: "Heck, maybe I'll just keep my Galaxy S4 and buy another battery."

I got an unexpected degree of pushback and questions. Some of you wondered what kind of tech journalist I could possibly be if I was fifty-fifty considering keeping a 2-yr-old telephone. But others of yous wondered how such a matter would work, and if it was even a viable strategy. The email bulletin that caught my eye, though, was this "Really? I could practice that?"

Yes, equally information technology turns out you tin can. The answer breaks out into two approaches: getting a new phone, only not turning in the old phone -- and merely keeping and using your former telephone. Let's take those in order.

Keeping your one-time phone as a spare handheld device

I wish I could tell you what happened to my old Treos. We probably dumped them during one of our moves. But my married woman and I nevertheless have my onetime iPhone 3G, my wife's former iPhone four, and my old iPhone 4S -- in addition to our not-even so-replaced Samsung S4s.

The iPhone 3G actually worked equally a phone for a short while when we needed a spare. I ran down to the local AT&T store, picked upwardly a SIM card (which I think was free at the fourth dimension). At present, the iPhone 3G acts as a Pandora music station in the gym. Information technology's attached to a set of speakers and still works basically as an iPod bear on.

My married woman'due south old iPhone 4 is in the puppy'south play room. We accept information technology hooked up as a baby monitor, and it sends video to any of our iPads or Macs.

I notwithstanding use my old iPhone 4S every night (fifty-fifty though the screen is starting to peel off the back, making pressing the Home button an adventure and touch a chip of an practice in randomness). I employ information technology as my primary Kindle reader (I read earlier I become to slumber) and equally the way I check in with Facebook (which I tend non to practice until the finish of the day).

All iii of these machines are fully functional (well, the 4S is on the edge and when its screen fully falls off, it will need to go). The iPhone 3G is running iOS vi, and the other 2 are running iOS 7. Since they piece of work fine with the older OS versions and since the few apps they run still work, I saw no reason to accept a chance on performance issues with an upgrade.

So how do you connect to the Cyberspace with an old phone? If you no longer pay for a carrier, you'll no longer have cellular or data service. But WiFi volition yet piece of work just fine. When you lot look at your phone's signal, you lot'll get zero bars for the phone service (and, sometimes, an annoying reminder that you lot're non continued -- I'm looking at you, Windows phones!), simply your WiFi volition work merely fine. I exercise my nightly reading and Pandora listening and puppy watching all over my in-house WiFi.

The signal is, though, that you can definitely keep and make use of your old phones -- they are fully-functional Internet machines in a handheld size. Only your imagination is the limit.

Keeping your erstwhile telephone as your principal phone

Now, this is a fleck more interesting. Getting a new phone is downright expensive -- as much or more than buying a new PC, given about of today's prices. And so exercise you need to march forth with the drumbeat of the every-two-year upgrade? Or can you salve your Benjamins for another 24-hour interval?

Permit's start with the possible. Certain, you lot can continue your telephone. Right now, our two Samsung S4s are past the stop of their contract and still on Verizon. Sadly, we're likewise notwithstanding paying Verizon's very high rates. I'm just waiting to see the full spectrum of this season's phone announcements (and I'one thousand very interested in the Nexus vi and Projection Fi), so nosotros'll probably wait another calendar month or so.

But you could likewise switch carriers. The outcome has to practice with whether the telephone you accept is uniform. There are some issues with what network you're on, whether CDMA, GSM, LTE or some other variation -- information technology gets to exist alphabet soup after a while. Information technology's best to go into one of the phone stores with your one-time phone and ask them to look it up and see if it can be used.

To switch, however, you'll demand to unlock your telephone. Your old carrier should exist able (and willing) to unlock your phone afterward your contract menses is up. If not, there are a tremendous number of unlock sources on the Internet. Just watch out, and brand sure to avoid scams.

One time you unlock your phone, y'all can switch carriers. Based on our electric current Verizon plan, my wife and I could easily save 50 percent or more my switching to T-Mobile or Sprint (both of which support WiFi calling, even on the former telephone). While neither has the coverage of Verizon, that's a compelling choice.

So, keeping your own phone is practical and possible, from a switching carriers point of view. But is it practical from a daily-driver bespeak of view?

Latest review

Here's where the practice begins to break down. And it very much depends on your phone. If your old phone was once very popular, you have a take a chance of however getting updates -- particularly security updates. If your former phone was a sell-it-and-forget-it phone, you may be stuck on an old version of Android (this applies mostly to Android phones) that will never be upgraded.

An united nations-upgraded Android phone is unsafe for daily use. Period. There are far too many security flaws in Android and the potential of losing your information or having your phone otherwise p0wned is too high. If your phone can't be upgraded, I wouldn't recommend using it as a daily-use telephone.

There's a trouble with upgrades, though, too. You're adding a lot of layers of upgrades -- and more and more than software -- onto your phone. Afterwards a while, your telephone starts to feel like the taxation lawmaking. Rather than a clean, straightforward surroundings, information technology'south patched to an inch of its life, and patches in ane area begin to fight with patches in another.

Granted it's not like the tax code in that it volition notwithstanding work and not rip u.s. all off, but eventually, the phone volition begin to prove signs of slowing down -- perhaps a lot. Another reason for the slowdown is upgrades often await the faster processors of more modernistic phones, and a two-year wait in technology may be reflected in a considerably slowdown.

The other trouble is apps. Some apps will piece of work on older versions of the phone's operating system, but some won't. My erstwhile iPhone 3G, for instance, won't upgrade by iOS vi -- and that ways we can't run the Gmail app. It's not actually an result because I utilize that auto for Pandora, but if I relied on it for daily apply, Gmail would be out (and yes, I know there are other postal service apps, but yous see where I'thousand going hither).

As your phone ages, y'all volition find that more than and more apps will either not exist compatible, or not supported on older versions of the operating organization.

Bottom line

What'south the bottom line? You can certainly proceed your quondam phones and put them to use. When I upgrade my phones, I'll probably supplant my crumbling iPhone 4S as my nightly reader with my comparably new Samsung S4.

You tin can also keep and re-carrier your onetime phones. However, as fourth dimension passes, upgrades will be harder to get, they will slow downwardly your phone's performance, be subject to more security flaws, and finish running some favorite apps.

My advice is this: keep your old phone for fun and games. Even keep your sometime phone for a few months (as I am, waiting to see the full spectrum of new offerings). But don't wait much more than a vi months or so after your contract ends to become a new phone.

Update: Updated to remove specific CDMA and GSM references and to add proffer to check with a carrier before switching.

By the way, I'm doing more updates on Twitter and Facebook than e'er before. Be sure to follow me on Twitter at @DavidGewirtz and on Facebook at Facebook.com/DavidGewirtz.