Source: Google Pixel 8 will get more Android OS updates
9to5google.com
9to5google.com
Owning a Pixel 4a has been great until the first major Android update, which made the "Adaptive battery" feature discharge the phone within two hours in standby. The fix didn't come for more then a year (!). A very similar thing then repeated with the next major update. One would think buying a phone from the main developer of the OS would come with more stability, reliability, and attention to detail, considering the argument of "oh, but it has to support a hundreds of thousands of phone models, not just 3 a year like Apple" is moot.
What good does 8 years of support do if the phone is borked after 3?
Every time, I am surprised how speedy and lag-free it feels.
I would really like a 'security updates only, no other updates' phone, because I value speed over some UI redesign or whatever is in the next android update.
The big might be unintentional, but bug prioritization surely is not.
In practice, Apple has shipped updates longer than competitors, but there is no guarantee. With Android vendors, there's a guaranteed support life.
It's a question of the degree you trust that part performance predicts future performance versus written policies.
It’s actually amazing. I switched from android to iOS basically for this reason and am not disappointed. Yet.
Android should offer long support windows, & the hope is there we will someday see this growing significantly (Project Treble & others).
But, Android devices let you install your own OS (if you can get an unlock, caveat #1). The device might not be supported by the manufacturer, but it's still possible to support the device. Which by virtue of being Linux needs to have sources available. Caveat #2, it's often a terrible vendorized kernel that will be incredibly difficult to use (but again Project Treble is trying to tilt the needle here). There's huge caveats, but at the same time, there's also a lot of quite old devices out there that can run quite modern OSes, without the manufacturers help. Which is something no iPhone iPad or iTv can do, and there's seemingly nothing on the horizon with promise to unbind these devices from Apple.
who cares if android has _de jure_ lifetimes, as they are shorter. apple won’t suddenly stop giving any devices updates after 1yr, so it doesnt really matter
They won't go full Wish.com phone on you, but with the prices of modern smartphones (€556 for the cheapest model, doesn't even come with a charger) I think the question "can I use this for five years or for eight years" is fair to ask.
Apple ships OS updates for longer, but not all features make it to the older devices, even when they're not bound to specific hardware. Also devices that don't get OS updates might as well be dead. Third party software support becomes non existent, Safari gets locked in time, the usability significantly decays.
In comparison Google decoupled their framework updates from OS updates a while ago now, and there will be enough third party options to keep the device useful long after the official support has ended. The Pixel 4a's support has ended, but it's still a useable device, where the iPhone 6S is already losing some apps that stopped supporting iOS15 completely.
At the end of the day, I don't think both approaches make that much of a difference.
You can still update the play services [0] or straight root it and install another OS
[0]: http://google-play-services.apk.watch/23.06.17%20(040400-511...
Edit: I've owned almost 10 Google android devices: nexus 5, 6, 5x, pixel 1, 2, 3, 6 pro, and a couple tablets
Of those, maybe 2 of them were stable after 2 years. Who cares if Google "promises OS updates" for 5 years if the updates are so unstable that the phone is unusable.
Meanwhile, it's not uncommon for people to be using 3+ year old iphones with no complaints. My iphone 11 (~4 years old) feels much snappier than my pixel 6 pro (~2 years old).
Many Android devices I have owned introduced new bugs with the updates that where then never fixed for these devices.
Personally, I trust past performance much, much more than written policies.
After all, the written policy doesn't promise the updates won't slow down the phone, or fill up its storage, or drain the battery faster, or introduce new ads and tracking - so in practice you're trusting past performance anyway.
And if I've got a written guarantee of updates and the company doesn't deliver, am I going to sue them? That sounds like a lot of hassle.
Samsung claim a support timeframe but they never released a page like Google's one (https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en) as far as I know
And even if we use Samsung claims as some sort of guarantee, we also need to take into account that while Google use the "at least" terminology, Samsung uses "at most" or "up to". Which basically means that they commit to nothing since a "up to 4 years of updates" (with one major update per year) could both means 1 or 0 updates or 4 updates
- Android 13 comes with a new media player that puts album artwork on full display and features a dancing playback bar. - You're in control of which apps can send you notifications—helping you limit distractions. [Is that a new feature??] - Send and receive messages even when your phone’s out of reach by streaming your messaging apps directly to your Chromebook.
https://www.android.com/android-13/
Is that some sort of joke? Just patch the security holes so I can safely use my banking app and that's it. I don't need a redesigned music player.
And then of course, there's the problem of new releases hogging resources and introducing buggy behaviour. At this point, I'd prefer a promise of "never new features and 8 years of security."
Don't get me wrong this is a good thing but in my experience at about 3 years you are looking at roughly 1000 charging cycles and so the battery will barely last 12 hours. Add into that knocks and bumps and scratches and they're basically junk by then. Even if you could replace the battery, the physical wear and tear is quite substantial I find (they're tools after all)
I suppose if you have been ultra cautious and basically leave your phone at home on the charger 90% of the time and keep it wrapped up in some huge case then it is conceivable that you might approach 8 years... But then if you are like this barely even use the phone, why not just get a feature phone?
Then replace the battery and enjoy your phone. I still have 5+yo phones I use to listen to music at the gym or as a GPS with offline maps when cycling, and having a secure and up to date OS is nice.
Yes, this is why user-replaceable batteries (which mobile phones had for many years) are important. So much so that the EU has passed legislation to force the industry to do the right thing. [1]
> and keep it wrapped up in some huge case
Depends on your phone, but I believe there's plenty of reasonable options to protect your pocket computing device that aren't "some huge case". Further, you should always invest in a decent screen protector. Scratches and damage to the screen impacts the usability of a slate form factor smartphone (since other than one or two hardware buttons, the entirety of your interaction with the device takes place through the screen).
> Add into that knocks and bumps and scratches and they're basically junk by then.
Why does some scuffing on the edges of the bezels turn a device into "junk", for you?
[1]: https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/24/23771064/european-union-b...
Most of the people I know don't change their phones because of battery issues but because there is a new phone on the market and they don't want to look cheap before their friends and colleges. The actual reason they tell if you ask them why they changed it is: "because it was slow". I can believe that too though since it already came bloated and the kept on downloading crap apps so...I guess the market is more happy with them than with my family.
Meanwhile Apple quietly is bugging me to update my 9 year old ipad.
It's my daily driver, so I use it all the time and it basically runs everything I need.
Depends on how you use it. I usually don't drain more than roughly 10% a day. I don't use my phone if I have a pc handy (which is most of the time). If I'm at the office or at home (which is most of the time) the phone will stay plugged-in.
1000 cycles in 3 years is almost a full cycle a day. It may have happened maybe once to me to use that much battery (I was using it as a GPS with no external power). Hell, my current phone's battery went down to like 40% after a long weekend away when I forgot to bring my charger.
So I guess I'm like your example. And the reason is that I use my mobile phone while out and about. Turns out, I don't go out much. Yes, I'm careful with it, but don't have it wrapped in a huge case. It only had a thin silicone case because the iPhone 7 was extremely slippery. It spent countless miles attached to my motorbike's handlebars in the sun and rain, doing GPS duty. When I stopped using it because the battery was starting to bulge, it was still otherwise looking brand new and the performance was still enough for my needs.
Don't know of any feature phone able to do that.
The only problem with it is that the original software left it at Android 5.1, which is unusable in terms of app support these days even with compatibility libraries. Custom ROM support has managed to get Android 11 (still receives monthly updates!) on the device years after Oneplus dropped the phone, but if a bunch of volunteers can keep the phone updated, a company making hundreds of billions of dollars per year definitely could.
I think a significant portion of the population could (and would) still use a reasonably priced high-end phone from ten years ago after a battery swap. If the software wasn't rushed out, I don't see why eight years is that impossible to attain.
I have a second much newer phone just for content consumption, but I don't make any important calls from it.
Ask and ye shall receive: I'm actually a little over 6 years into my BlackBerry KeyOne (though I will concede that I am an outlier).
> if you could replace the battery, the physical wear and tear is quite substantial
That's why I'm still using it. Parts are dirt cheap. There's scant little glue to dig through for anything that needs to be replaced, and it's easy to work on. It's been dropped so many times the only original-to-this-phone parts are the mainboard and damn SIM tray.
Beyond that, there are no other options. There is nothing meaningfully better that includes a notification LED, physical keyboard, reasonable battery life (due to chipset and smaller screen), SD card slot, 3.5mm jack, and has spare parts for reasonably low cost (ruling out later BlackBerry handsets).
I imagine they can do 5~9 phones per year and the situation should improve drastically.
Had a Nokia 8 before and would still have it if Nokia kept supporting it. Some things (e.g. Keyboard, VPN integration) were superior to my new iPhone.
Most people don't bother, but on popular Android phones, community support can extend the life of the phone way beyond what the manufacturer provides.
Data journalism skills should be embedded in every news team.
I think that's pretty clearly defined in the article.