On average, people upgrade their smartphones every two years. Even accounting for some that might have been damaged or lost over time, many people still have a few old phones that are no longer in use at home.
So then, what do you do with those phones? You could give them out, but if they are from a long while ago, you’d be hard pressed to find someone who needs those old models. And since most trade-in plans only extend to the past few years, that route might not be open either.
Once you’ve decided on the best deal for your new phone via a price comparison site like Smartphone Checker, there are many creative things you can do with your old phones that’ll help you and even other people.
Gaming Console
This will work if you have an Android and are interested in playing retro games, including your favorite childhood titles on the Sega Genesis and the Nintendo 64. All you have to do is download the appropriate emulators and hook your phone up to a TV via Chromecast or a cable that converts your micro-USB to HDMI. Add a wireless Bluetooth controller and you’ll be good to go. Just make sure you only download games that you already own. Doing otherwise is illegal.
GPS
Using your current phone as your GPS unit means that you’ll likely have the directions interrupted by calls or notifications while you drive, which is not a lot of fun and could even lead to you missing a turn or two. You can solve that problem by just taking your old phone, loading up your favorite mapping app on it and mount it on your dashboard to have a dedicated GPS unit that won’t distract you in any way.
Sell It
Putting your phone up for sale can be very profitable, though it’ll be best if it’s a phone that’s not too old and is in good condition. If you want to that, you’ll need to put some basic marketing skills to use when you post it on one of the best places to sell iPhone so as to attract people to view your listing and place the order.
Media Server
You can turn your phone into a TV top box very conveniently simply by connecting it to a Chromecast streaming device or using a micro USB-to-HDMI cable to connect directly to the TV. The good thing is that you have a lot of flexibility when it comes to which apps to use. As soon as you download Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Spotify, and Pandora or any others, you’ll be in TV streaming heaven.
Security Camera
A lot of times, you’ll find that smartphones (even those from a few generations ago) have better cameras than many CCTV setups. If you want to monitor your home, you could use your smartphone instead and set up one of the many apps that’ll make it motion sensitive and capable of sending you a text message whenever someone comes in.
Scientific Research
You may have heard of Folding@Home, an app made by Stanford researchers that allows you to contribute your device’s unused processing power to a distributed supercomputer working on finding cures for cancer and other diseases. There are other apps that allow you to contribute to research on everything from global warming to space research.
