Hacker News Reader

Comment by VeejayRampay | Hacker News Reader

Will this phone be discontinued and unsupported after two years like other Google phones though? I've owned a Nexus 4, a Nexus 5 and now a 5X, I think they're very good phones, but the fact that the Nexus 5 I bought 2 years ago won't ever see the light of Nougat is extremely annoying. I wish Google at least pretended to care about their older lines of phones (which are not cheap phones either, the Nexus 5 cost me about 500 euros when I bought it).

View on HN

They clearly outline the update lifetime in the operating system section of the store: https://store.google.com/product/pixel_phone

"Android 7.1 Nougat, the latest Android OS

2 years of OS updates

3 years of security updates"

Thanks for this! At least they are being more transparent than in the past.

By my calculations, Apple is doubling this (based on iPhone 5, and OS updates, not security updates). I think in $/month for disposable hardware like phones.

Plus, Apple's model is to charge for software development, while Google subsidizes it with ads/surveillance/platform lock-in. I'm happy to (and did, with the iPhone 6) pay 2x to opt-out of the OS-level surveillance.

So, for me, this phone is 4x more expensive than an iPhone. That takes real "courage". Of course, most people don't think like me, so they'll probably sell lots of these.

This has been the policy since the Nexus 4.

So Nexus phones have been 4x more expensive since Nexus 4.

Well the Nexus 4 started at $299 at launch, and the Nexus 5 and 5X at $349, so that changes things a bit.

I do think that Google's support lifetime of these phones is atrocious, my comment was in reference to the "At least they are being more transparent than in the past."

Yeah; I worded that poorly. I should have said:

If they want me back as a customer, they need to add a "turn off all telemetry" button (just like Microsoft needs one), and they'd need to double the support lifetime or half the price of this phone to be inline with Apple.

I've noticed Apple tended to command a ~2x price premium on Android, even when their phones had shorter support periods. I personally am willing to pay that premium for privacy/security, but not the camera or apps / os features, which are largely comparable between the two platforms.

I would rather worry about the non-replaceable battery and the missing microSD card slot.

You can upgrade a 3.5 year old Galaxy S4 to over 128 GB storage (~35 € for a microSD card) and a fresh battery (~10 € for a new one). And with custom ROMs you can also run Nougat (I'm personally still running Marshmallow on mine though).

Unfortunately there are some models of the S4 which cannot run a custom rom (AT&T model, for example).

This one? http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=jflteatt

Luckily I'm from Germany and we have the international version (with a Qualcomm SoC).

But it's true that you have to be careful which phone you buy if you want to run a custom ROM. For example there are several "Value Editions" of Samsung's phones which can't be rooted.

Yes, that's the one. Unfortunately around the time of the introduction of the Android 5 update on that handset, they also locked down the bootloader. As far as I'm aware (and a quick search of the XDA forums), it seems that it will probably never be unlocked. Such a shame because it is a great phone being left behind.

Ah I see :/

Btw: You can officially unlock the bootloader of some of LG's phones, see http://developer.lge.com/resource/mobile/RetrieveBootloader....

It worries me that the unlocking of many phones relies on manufacturer websites that might not be there one day. Hell, even the Xiaomi Mi4c required unlocking with "identity verification" via SMS.

What's the alternative though? We probably don't want the phones to be unlocked from the start for security reasons.

The Nexus approach - fastboot oem unlock, maybe controlled via a software switch in the OS.

> I would rather worry about the non-replaceable battery and the missing microSD card slot.

You're one of the last few remaining ;)

People are still impressed with the hardware of my 10 month old Lumia 950xl. Removable battery, microSD card slot, physical camera button and top notch camera.

They are so useful, my next phone will have all these features too.

The Nexus 5 was released ‎October 31, 2013, making it almost three years old (at least it's three generations old - after 5 came 6, then 5x and 6p - now the Pixel its de facto successor).

What is more relevant than when it was released is when it was last sold as a new device through official channels. If a phone is for sale though a legitimate distributor, then I think it's reasonable to expect security updates for 3 years after that point.

Yes, 2 years of upgrades and another for security updates.

While I can't speak to their cycles, is it really fair to call the Nexus line 'Google phones?'

It seems possible they'd be more likely to extend support lifetime to this rather than branded partner phones.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com