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Reasons why your smartphone slows down over time

Have you ever noticed your smartphone slowing down after a year of use? The buttery smooth animations, fast response, and overall snappy performance have waned over time, and now your phone feels a little sluggish. Why does that happen? Today, we’ll be outlining several reasons why your phone may have slowed down over time.

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Table of Contents

Limited storage

Perhaps the most popular reason is the phone’s storage. Like SSDs, the flash storage used in your phone slows down the more data is stored in it. Furthermore, as more data cells are written and read on, the storage becomes more fragmented, which reduces the lifetime of the flash memory. Filling up your device’s storage capacity can also impact performance, so you might want to check if there’s still enough room.

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Poor battery

The next reason is your device’s battery. Some manufacturers slow down the device via software updates to help preserve the battery’s lifespan. This is especially true for iPhones – as Apple has confirmed that they are indeed slowing down older devices to conserve the aging battery.

iPhone 6s

Software updates

Another reason for your phone slowing down are software updates. While most updates are meant to optimize your devices, some updates achieve the opposite. By optimizing for the most recent releases, it may negatively impact older devices. Moreover, some updates come with new apps, which conveniently lead to the following reason – background apps.

Resource-heavy apps

As users install more apps onto their devices, the more it has to handle on the background. These apps eat up both CPU, RAM, and battery power, resulting in a slower device. Some apps also require heavier resources and if your old smartphone’s hardware can’t keep up, it will eventually slow down.

Malware

Lastly, if you’ve downloaded or opened a malicious app or email, then you might’ve been exposed to malware. The effects of malware vary from just being a nuisance, slowing down your phone with extra processes, or it could be a security attack. If this is the case, consider resetting your device and change all your passwords immediately using another device.

If your 3-year-old device has slowed down over time to the point where it’s too slow, maybe it’s about time to upgrade! With advancements in chipsets, cameras, and storage technologies, even a mid-range device can handle most tasks that you throw at it. But if you still want to give it a shot, you can check out our video below on how to make your old and slow Android phone fast again.

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Arel Ebana

Arel studied Material Science Engineering at Mapúa University while working part-time as a multimedia producer in YugaTech. He is also a theater actor, cinematographer, and editor at Tanghalang SAWAKAS, and Vincentiments. He has been doing films for a year while doing stage performances for 5 years already.