Back to School: To Upgrade or Not

Even though it feels like summer just started, Back-to-School is already in full swing, with some schools starting back up by the end of this month. With that come the lists, the schedules, and most importantly — the budget. As you prepare your checklist of items and look up the best prices, stop to ask yourself this first: Is it needed? More specifically, do I already have it?  

If you have younger kids, the bulk of your back-to-school list will consist of classroom essentials like notebooks and pens, maybe a new backpack if the old one's worn out, some new clothes if they’ve outgrown last season’s. If your kids are a bit older, that list starts expanding into some pricier territory with the introduction of tech. Whether it’s a new phone, new tablet, or new laptop, you could easily be looking at more than $1,000.

But before you go through the checkout process, let’s first walk through a useful checklist you can employ to determine whether that “new” is a worthwhile upgrade over the “old.”

How to determine if the upgrade is worth it

1. Identify the reason for upgrading

If your kid comes to you saying that they need a new phone for the school year, first determine why they’re asking. If it’s because their phone is “old” and “slow,” we reckon that deserves some deeper investigation. Is their storage space used up and possibly slowing down performance? Is the battery eaten up by hours of streaming? What does “slow” mean, and how is it impacting them?  

If you find the phone is indeed not performing anymore, for example it doesn’t have enough storage space, or if it’s damaged in any way, you can start looking for a replacement. Back to school time means lots of back to school phone deals.

But if all the complaints can be amended with simple adjustments (backing up files and media to a cloud storage space, deleting unnecessary apps, paying for an easy screen fix), then you can cross that item right off your list and save your money for better things.  

2. List out actual needs

Sit down with your student and go over what their actual needs are. If it’s tech for school, they can get specific about size of the laptop or tablet (something that’s portable and light), the type of software it supports, and if it needs a camera. If it’s tech for personal use (like a phone), root out the most important needs: connection to parents and friends, camera for photos/video calls, or just an emergency number they can use.  

Figuring out the most important need(s) will help you determine whether their current setup is adequate (perhaps with a few adjustments), or if they truly are in need of an upgrade. This will also help you narrow down the options for the features that need attention by filtering based on the corresponding specs.  

3. Compare the specs

When it comes to tech, manufacturers love to use jargon for the specs, leaving you to either look up every line, or just assume it’s good because it’s the latest model (of course it’s good if it’s new!) In reality, though, a lot of those specs are either very similar to what you already have, or in some cases, could even be worse. If you’re trying to determine if your kid’s tech is truly “old” and needs an upgrade, here is an easy guide to deciphering those specs:  
 
Battery life: If the complaint is that the battery runs out too quickly and you want to find something longer lasting, you’ll be looking for the mAhs (milliampere-hours), which refers to the capacity a battery has. As you can guess, higher mAh means longer battery life. For example, a 5,000 mAh phone battery can typically last anywhere from 12 to 24 hours with moderate use, while a 4,200 mAh battery will only last 10 to 14 hours.  
Check the manufacturer website to find the mAh capacity of the current phone, then compare to the prospective upgrade to ensure it will actually be a longer-lasting battery.  

Camera quality: Probably the most requested upgrade when it comes to new phones is the camera. While it’s easy to get lost in all the different types and the sheer number of cameras a phone can have, it’s important to understand what makes the quality better (and no, it’s not just having an iPhone vs. an Android). Cameras are measured by the MPs (megapixels), which determines the resolution of the photos they can take. Generally, more MPs means better photos. There are other factors that come in, like the lens and the image processing that occurs after the photo is taken, but in general, if you’re looking to get better photos from your phone, look for the phone that has at least one camera (the main, rear one) with higher MPs than your current one.  

Storage space: Whether their laptop is running slow or they constantly have to delete photos to make space for new ones, storage can be a contentious issue. Phone storage and tablet storage gets measured by the GBs (gigabytes), while laptop storage may be more readily measured by TBs (terabytes). You can look for an option that simply has more GBs listed or, even better, has an external microSD slot that can extend the internal storage (by adding another mini hard drive, essentially). To make it easier, this spec behaves linearly, so for example, upgrading from a 64GB phone to a 128GB phone will literally give you twice the amount of space.  

If you want to get even more technical, you can look at the RAM (Random Access Memory), which is like your device’s short-term memory, helping you store apps and data temporarily for a smoother experience. The more RAM you have, the faster and smoother your experience is. You should look for a minimum of 8GB of RAM for an optimal experience.  

Once you look over the new spec sheet, compare with your current device and determine whether the upgrade is truly worth it. Sure, maybe the new phone has one more camera, but if the battery life, storage, and RAM remain the same that “upgrade” is pretty much useless.  

If you’ve come to the conclusion that an upgrade is in order, know that it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to come up with $1,000. There are plenty of devices in the “under $500” range that can still fulfill the upgrade needs. Plus, plenty of others have had the same idea and are now putting their older devices up for sale — old for them, new (and upgraded) for you.

Remember that the most expensive tech isn’t always the best tech, just like the most expensive phone service is not the best one. Sometimes, paying $0 for the same service is just as good — and gives you back +$100 each month to spend on what actually matters.