In 2012, I was looking for a smartphone to upgrade to. It was either going to be the HTC One X, or the Samsung Galaxy S3 (AT&T). I chose the S3 due to the removable battery, better popularity (hence better forum support on XDA Developers), and the extra gig of RAM. At this point, I am eligible for an upgrade. However, I still may keep my S3 for possibly another year. Here's why.
Rooting my phone (come at me Samsung, my warranty is long gone anyway) may have been one of the best things that I have done to it. By putting Cyanogenmod on my device, I have removed all the bloatware, speeding up my phone. So now, I am getting better use out of the dual core, 1.5 Ghz processor. While all the high-end Android phones on the market now have quad-core, I will say that the speed difference hasn't quite been enough alone to justify an upgrade.
RAM is another big thing. At the time of release, the US-spec S3 had 2 gigabytes of RAM, more than almost every other phone on the market. Many of today's high end phones still only have 2 gigabytes of RAM. The next phone I get must have at least 3 gigs, or else I will not deem it to be "justified".
As phones get older, batteries tend to suffer. Luckily, my phone has a removable battery, so when my battery finally stops working well enough (already happened), I can just buy a new one and replace it. Problem solved.
While I cannot replace the camera, I have found my camera (front and back) to be good enough (I even used it in a YouTube video). Infrared transmitter? I can deal without.
My plan is to basically fix up my phone so it will last. I'll unroot it, perform a full reset, then root it again to make it fresh. I'll definitely need a new battery, so I will have to buy one of those as well. My phone case isn't in the best condition, so I will have to replace that as well. Then suddenly, I will have a two year old smartphone ready for possibly another year of use, until a smartphone comes on the market that has enough of an internal upgrade for me to upgrade. You readers may wonder if I am a guy who doesn't believe in upgrading because "it's a waste". That is not me. However, it just happens that phones haven't progressed quite enough to justify an upgrade for me.
P.S. My next phone may last me less than two years. With the white band spectrum (or whatever it's called) set to be utilized for the public thanks to the demise of analog TV signal, I would like a phone that receives better service quickly. And that could happen around 2017.
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