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> Only 2 years updates This part is simply atrocious. I am using iPhone 5s just fine with latest version ios. Google should admit clearly on their online stor

by geodel 10y ago

> Only 2 years updates This part is simply atrocious. I am using iPhone 5s just fine with latest version ios. Google should admit clearly on their online store that they do not have wherewithal to work with Network operators, hardware vendors to keep OS updated for at least 3-4 years.

soylentcola 10y ago
Just as a point of reference (not that you'd necessarily agree) but I still get regular security patches for my Nexus 5 which is 3 years old. It's not the same as entire-OS updates but in my time with iOS, I found that trying to run newer OS versions meant to leverage newer hardware on older devices was a generally negative experience. I have an older iPad that ran smoothly and wonderfully when I got it but after taking enough system updates, it now run so slowly that I only use it as an ebook reader. Opening more than one or two browser tabs slows it to a crawl and I've found no real way to just flash an older system image to get it back to a more usable state. At the same time, security updates are crucial so I do want to have those. The setup where I can get security patches every month or so but keep running a base OS version that the hardware can handle is ideal. Again, this isn't quite the same as the Nexus 5 is only 3 years old but it still runs surprisingly well with only major slowdown if I'm switching between lots of running apps due to memory limitations. I guess my point is that in some cases, it's more important to get the core security updates (which Nexus has a fairly good track record of) than the latest bleeding edge OS features. May not be as good as a device that seamlessly runs the latest and greatest for 3-4 years but I find that after a point, you can't really use those newer features if your hardware is outdated so it's been less of an issue in practice for me.
- givinguflac 10y ago
  FWIW, all supported devices on iOS 10, even the oldest models, run without slowdown in my experience. I agree that hasn't been the case in the past.
  - lostsock 10y ago
    My wife has an iPhone SE and it's performance under iOS 10 has degraded significantly.
    - thirdsun 10y ago
      There seems to be something wrong with your wife's phone. The iPhone SE uses the same hardware as the 6S which is plenty to run iOS 10 flawlessly. You should reset the device and start fresh.
fragmede 10y ago
It's just marketing. People latch onto the 2 years + 1 year of security updates, but drop the second half of the sentence. Google could have just said 3 years of updates and just had an asterisk to describe 2 + 1 years. The last supported OS version on a given iPhone version runs like a pig. iOS 9 is noticably slow on an iPhone 4s, and iOS 10 on an iphone 5-no-'s' is no exception, so I'm not sure how much that fifth year of support really counts for.
- hocuspocus 10y ago
  Also, many parts of Android are updated through the Play store, and support libraries exist. The comparison is unfair, a Nexus 4 is still very usable today.
- joelhaus 10y ago
  Wouldn't it actually depend on when you buy the phone? If I buy a Pixel in one year (just before the "Pixel 2" is released), presumably I will still receive the two years of updates... Alternatively, if I buy the Pixel on it's release date, is it safe to assume I will receive 3 years of major updates + 1 year of security updates?
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
the_trapper 10y ago
Unfortunately, Android devices will likely never see significant support past 2 years because of the Linux kernel. The maintainers of the Linux kernel are openly hostile to maintaining ABI and API compatibility with drivers which is necessary to allow binary blob vendor drivers to work with newer kernels. Ideally this should encourage vendors to simply open source their drivers and integrate them upstream into the kernel. However, in practice it means that most phones are stuck with whatever kernel they shipped with pretty much forever. Personally, I'd like to see Google switch to a BSD-based kernel, at least as an alternative option. Most of the interesting parts of Android live far above kernel space anyway.

by geodel 10y ago

soylentcola 10y ago

Just as a point of reference (not that you'd necessarily agree) but I still get regular security patches for my Nexus 5 which is 3 years old. It's not the same as entire-OS updates but in my time with iOS, I found that trying to run newer OS versions meant to leverage newer hardware on older devices was a generally negative experience. I have an older iPad that ran smoothly and wonderfully when I got it but after taking enough system updates, it now run so slowly that I only use it as an ebook reader. Opening more than one or two browser tabs slows it to a crawl and I've found no real way to just flash an older system image to get it back to a more usable state. At the same time, security updates are crucial so I do want to have those. The setup where I can get security patches every month or so but keep running a base OS version that the hardware can handle is ideal. Again, this isn't quite the same as the Nexus 5 is only 3 years old but it still runs surprisingly well with only major slowdown if I'm switching between lots of running apps due to memory limitations. I guess my point is that in some cases, it's more important to get the core security updates (which Nexus has a fairly good track record of) than the latest bleeding edge OS features. May not be as good as a device that seamlessly runs the latest and greatest for 3-4 years but I find that after a point, you can't really use those newer features if your hardware is outdated so it's been less of an issue in practice for me.

givinguflac 10y ago
FWIW, all supported devices on iOS 10, even the oldest models, run without slowdown in my experience. I agree that hasn't been the case in the past.
- lostsock 10y ago
  My wife has an iPhone SE and it's performance under iOS 10 has degraded significantly.
  - thirdsun 10y ago
    There seems to be something wrong with your wife's phone. The iPhone SE uses the same hardware as the 6S which is plenty to run iOS 10 flawlessly. You should reset the device and start fresh.

fragmede 10y ago

It's just marketing. People latch onto the 2 years + 1 year of security updates, but drop the second half of the sentence. Google could have just said 3 years of updates and just had an asterisk to describe 2 + 1 years. The last supported OS version on a given iPhone version runs like a pig. iOS 9 is noticably slow on an iPhone 4s, and iOS 10 on an iphone 5-no-'s' is no exception, so I'm not sure how much that fifth year of support really counts for.

hocuspocus 10y ago
Also, many parts of Android are updated through the Play store, and support libraries exist. The comparison is unfair, a Nexus 4 is still very usable today.
joelhaus 10y ago
Wouldn't it actually depend on when you buy the phone? If I buy a Pixel in one year (just before the "Pixel 2" is released), presumably I will still receive the two years of updates... Alternatively, if I buy the Pixel on it's release date, is it safe to assume I will receive 3 years of major updates + 1 year of security updates?

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

the_trapper 10y ago

Unfortunately, Android devices will likely never see significant support past 2 years because of the Linux kernel. The maintainers of the Linux kernel are openly hostile to maintaining ABI and API compatibility with drivers which is necessary to allow binary blob vendor drivers to work with newer kernels. Ideally this should encourage vendors to simply open source their drivers and integrate them upstream into the kernel. However, in practice it means that most phones are stuck with whatever kernel they shipped with pretty much forever. Personally, I'd like to see Google switch to a BSD-based kernel, at least as an alternative option. Most of the interesting parts of Android live far above kernel space anyway.