Which mobile phone brands develop the most faults?

Battery problems, crashes, and poor performance are all issues that smartphone owners notice with their devices over time. 

New Which? data, based on the ownership of over 20,000 smartphones purchased in the last seven years, reveals which phone brands develop the most faults and how quickly these can happen.

Fortunately, many of these can be fixed - either for free, or for a small cost. Read on to find out more.

Check our guide to the best smartphones for 2022 to see which models impressed in our tough lab tests.

The best and worst mobile phone brands for faults

As you can see from the table below, smartphone brands differ a fair bit when it comes to chances of developing a fault over the first few years – and it might surprise you to see where the most popular brands, Samsung and Apple, are placed.

Table notes Results are based on a survey of 20,659 smartphones owned by Which? members and members of the public. Sample sizes shown in brackets after the brand. The phones were purchased between 2015 and 2022. Research conducted in March 2022.

Sony phones developed the most faults out of those surveyed above. Concerningly, 1 in 5 Sony phones developed a fault after only three years of ownership, which is the length of some phone contracts.

On the other hand, the brand that developed the least faults was Xiaomi with a staggering 96% not seeing any faults after five years. Releasing seven phones so far this year at a range of prices, they might be a brand worth considering.

Samsung, Apple and Google are the most popular brands on the market, but they are middle of the road among their competitors for the number of faults they develop.

However, only 11% of faults affect smartphones overall within three years of owning one, so there's not too much to worry about when it comes to a phone's hardware if you want to keep it for longer.

You can filter our mobile phone reviews by brand, to see how each model in the range scored in our tests. 

What are the most common faults in mobile phones?

1. Battery problems (35%)

Without question, the biggest problems affecting smartphones are battery related. This includes rare instances of swelling or failing batteries, but the most common are reports of the battery life getting significantly worse over a short period of time – representing a quarter of all faults that were reported. Both having a phone quickly lose charge or having it become very slow or sluggish was a problem for under 1 in 10.

On the whole, battery life on phones is improving. But if you notice it getting worse, there are some things you can do to help. Turn off your internet when you're not using it, or dim the brightness of the screen to help in the short term. If your battery is still too poor to bear, consider buying a replacement battery instead of upgrading the whole handset. Find out prices and more in our guide on mobile phone repair. 

2. Slow and sluggish phones (9%)

The second most common fault to develop in phones is experiencing them becoming slow or sluggish over time.

The easiest way to stop this is to restart your phone every few days to clear the memory and any apps that are running in the background. Also, avoid installing lots of apps and uninstall any you don't use. You should also install software updates regularly and as soon as they're available – as well as important security patches and bug fixes, these often include optimisations to help your phone run more smoothly.

3. Phone crashes - i.e. apps closing unexpectedly or it turns itself off (6%)

The third most common fault from our survey is phone crashes, though the chances are still pretty low with only 6% of smartphone owners experiencing this.

Similar to when your phone feels slow, try restarting your phone and uninstall apps you don't need. Make sure apps are regularly updated too. You can turn on auto-update in the app store so you don't have to check if updates are available manually.

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4. Phone freezing (5%)

Only 5% of respondents had their smartphone freeze. 

If this happens, force a restart according to the manufacturer's instructions. If it keeps happening, try freeing up some of your phone's memory by deleting apps, pictures and videos you don't want to keep. Or add a micro-SD card to expand the memory on your phone (if your phone is compatible with one). If this doesn't work, you may need to factory reset your phone as a last resort. 

5. Cracked screen (5%)

Lots of us worry about smashing our screens when dropping an expensive phone, and though it's not a fault as such, 5% of survey respondents found that this happened to them. If you're concerned, use a case to help protect your smartphone from the odd drop.

Cracked screens are generally a more expensive problem to fix, but if you shop around you should be able to find a good deal. Check out prices and more advice in our mobile phone screen repair guide.

Which faults aren't as common?

Worried about losing your photos or messages? Our survey data suggests there's no reason to be with just 1% reporting these problems over a seven-year period. Instances of software update problems came in at 4%, phones overheating at 3%, and speaker failure at only 1%.

Find out the full survey results including customer satisfaction scores and more in our guide on which mobile phone brand to buy.

What else should I consider when buying a mobile phone?

With only 13% of smartphones developing faults across five years, Which? data suggests we could be keeping our phones for a lot longer than most phone contracts. However, though the hardware may last, most of the time important security updates are not given to smartphones for long enough to keep using them safely.

Security updates are important to help prevent hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in a phone's software. The longer a phone is without security patches, the higher the risk becomes. The best manufacturers support phones for at least five years from the phone's initial release date. This includes Apple, and some Samsung and Google phones. The worst only aim to support handsets for two years regardless of their price. Find out when your phone is expected to lose security updates in our guide to mobile phone security.

With fault counts being so low for smartphones, buying an older, second-hand phone could save you money on your next handset with little compromise. Just make sure you choose one of the strongest smartphone brands above for a reduced risk of developing faults, and a brand with a good security support period. Find out more in our guide to buying a second-hand phone.

Which? surveyed over 16,000 Which? members and members of the public in March 2022 about their experience with tech products, so we can help you choose which brands to buy. Find out about the best brands for mobile phones, laptops and printers in our guides below.

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