I've had a Samsung S8 for 4.5 years now, and it is still okay.

Yeah it shows that it is old. The battery and performance is worse than before, but it still lasts the day as I am not using it that hard. I have no legitimate _need_ to upgrade as it stands today.

I guess the frequency of upgrades quite heavily on usage, but I find upgrading every 2 years to be very often.

I believe the more you spend on a phone the more you're inclined to endure the performance degradation. With a cheap phone it's easier to let it go and buy a new one, so you always have a new, fast and updated device

I’m on an iPhone 8 here, works just as well as when it was new ~4.5 years ago. Battery may be at around 80% capacity (as experienced by me), received an iOS update a couple of days ago.

Edit to add: replaced a slim silicone cover once or twice, hardened glass screen protector 3 or 4 times.

Yeah probably it's just different with Apple, hardware and software is just better designed and optimized. My previous MacBook pro lasted 10 years.

That batteries cannot be replaced in phones is such garbage.

My phone right now is a Fairphone 4, with replaceable battery (and the rest too!).

It'll come with a 5-year warranty and software updates, but the big question is of course if hardware specs will be good enough in 5 years.