I currently have a four year old Samsung Galaxy Note 3 that is heavily slowing down and crashes a lot. Is this common in smartphones? Should I buy a new phone?
It's very uncommon in Smartphones actually. Most smartphones these days would have gone off never to come back on after two to three years. Tecno phones go off after a year.Your Note 3 is due for replacement. One that is long overdue. That device you have was made for apps and functions of 2013. Apps of subsequent years would need more powerful devices to handle them. I'm afraid your Note is gotta go.I might sound like a hypocrite but I'm writing this post on an IPad 2 that came out in 2011. It's very slow and can't download many apps from the AppStore anymore. Right now, I just use it to watch videos online, Twitter and Quora. The device is almost obsolete. However, it'a tablet. It wasn't doing much before. This your Note is your mobile device. I'm sure it's already slowing down your productivity, replacing it is the recommended option.You can buy the Note 8 or even the S8 or S8+. These phones can well enough take you for the next three years. If you use them as well as you did this Note.I hope this helps.