Phone satisfaction falls to 10-year low – and AI is only partly to blame

If you’re not as happy with your current mobile phone as you used to be, you’re not alone.

A recent American Customer Satisfaction Index study showed that overall cell phone user satisfaction took a big step back this year from 82% to 78%. That might not sound like a huge drop, but it’s the lowest satisfaction score in 10 years. Last year’s score was an all-time high.

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ACSI said the drop is largely in part to AI enhancements that didn’t quite deliver what they promised. Add in the fact that most people aren’t embracing AI on mobile devices anyway (only 8% of people said they’d pay for AI features), and it’s clear customers are more focused on practical things like simple calling and texting, the phone’s design, and improved battery life instead of fancy features.

The study showed that steep prices and low upgrade rates also played a part in people being less satisfied.

“Brands keep racing to add new capabilities, yet customers still judge smartphones by the fundamentals,” says Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI, in a press release about this study. “Only when companies strengthen the essentials — battery life, call reliability, and ease of use — does innovation truly deliver lasting satisfaction.”

Samsung and Apple led the way in 2025, with 81% overall satisfaction, but both of those numbers were down 1% from the year before. Seventy-five percent of Google users are happy with their phones, a drop of 3% from 2024. 

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When it comes to smart watches, Samsung led the way with 83%, followed by Apple at 80% and Fitbit at 72%. Again, basic elements like durability, physical design, and screen resolution were the most important factors to users. This was the survey’s first year asking about user satisfaction with watches.

This study was based on 27,494 responses from customers chosen at random and contacted via email between April 2024 and March 2025. 

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