Maybe you kept the old one around as a backup. Maybe you recycled it. But, chances are, whatever you did, you didn’t physically upgrade the thing. You didn’t toss in more memory or a new processor or any aftermarket parts.

In the desktop computing era, upgrading your machine was common practice. Amateur users could replace motherboards, processors, memory, hard drives, video cards, and other components with relative ease. But the prevalence of ever smaller laptops, and now smartphones, means that user upgrades are quickly becoming a thing of the past.

Part of this phenomenon is due to the design of the new devices. Their smaller form factors make them harder to take apart and access the components, and many of these devices arrive from the factory fully sealed, so you can’t tinker with them without highly specialized tools. Another key factor is cost: it’s often cheaper to buy a whole new device than to swap out components. And let’s not overlook how difficult it’s becoming to get your hands on the extra hardware. There aren’t many companies selling component upgrades for smartphones.