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I've got a 7 or 8 year old Google Nexus phone. Google stopped updating the OS 5 years ago. The only impact I've noticed is that newer apps won't run on and olde
by sizzzzlerz 9y ago
I've got a 7 or 8 year old Google Nexus phone. Google stopped updating the OS 5 years ago. The only impact I've noticed is that newer apps won't run on and older OS. For me, however, that really isn't a problem since I use it for making and receiving calls and texts, and checking my email. Right now, I'm in no hurry to lay out hundreds for a new phone, Apple or Android, that will be obsoleted in just a couple years when the vendor abandons it.
- adventured 9y agoI've got a Samsung S4 laying around that I hadn't used for years (it's 4 1/2 years old). Recently I fired it up just to check some things. As expected, it still runs beautifully for normal Web use across all sites. Other than the small form factor (which some people may prefer), it's easy to see how consumers might stick to older phones.
- megaman22 9y agoI'm tempted to dust my old Aviator off and repurpose it as a gba emulator or something.
- pjmlp 9y agoI used my S3 until it died on me, a couple of months ago.
- iainmerrick 9y agoThe S3 and S4 were pretty nice! Very slow flash, like every other Android back then, but good screens and very capable GPUs. (Since then screen size increases have outpaced GPU speed bumps, so modern phones don't always draw any faster.)
- lousken 9y agoexcept for the old android I don't see any problems with my S4, so I'll be using it for another 2 years. And I actually prefer that size, it's easy to use with one hand
- thomastjeffery 9y agoThe problem that you don't notice is the lack of security updates.
- LandoCalrissian 9y agoRight? It may still largely be functional, but I would never trust that device in the open, it's just ripe for a bevy of attacks. I really wish Google would expand their service lifetime on their own devices, because I feel 2 years is really too short.
- on_and_off 9y agoIt is 3 years now with the new pixel. Still too little in my opinion.
- The_DaveG 9y agoTwo years is completely too short, even three years if you purchase mid-cycle is not enough. I own Nexus 5X's on Project Fi, one bootlooped and was replaced, the other still going strong after ~20months. I also have a Pixel XL acquired like 7 months ago, both of those should outlive the updates and giving Google the money directly, they should take care of their customers. Far from an Apple fan boy, the 2016 MBP and 2017 iPad do not worry me about getting forgotten in the ever ongoing updates.
- Spivak 9y agoTwo years is too short but once you get on the extended warranty loop you can basically get another 2/4 years of new phones on the cheap.
- The_DaveG 9y agoFor the 5X's, the were a great deal, and it would cost more than the phone to get into the extended warranties. Not worth it for our purposes. As long as they keep working, we'll keep using them.
- 9y ago
- saagarjha 9y ago> I've got a 7 or 8 year old Google Nexus phone. There's probably an Android O ROM out there that someone on XDA has compiled for your device.
- ekianjo 9y agoHosted on a dubious server with no guarantee at all there is no malware in it.
- userbinator 9y agoI trust the community on XDA composed of actual users and developers who are also users, more than the faceless corporation whose profit largely comes from extracting as much of your personal information as possible and monetising it.
- ekianjo 9y agoNo matter who you choose to trust there are going to be no insurance that vulnerabilities are actually fixed. Its not a magic bullet.
- spookthesunset 9y agoI’d rather trust a faceless corporation with a reputation to keep over a bunch of faceless anonymous dudes on a forum.
- userbinator 9y agoThey're not anonymous, they're pseudoanonymous, which also means carrying a reputation; and if anyone tries to deceive, the community is not entirely full of idiots, unlike what a lot of others in this subthread seem to imply --- all it takes is for someone to find out and provide proof, and the news will spread widely. The fact that people seem to be scared of and are basically unwilling to make their own decisions of trust in deference to central authorities says a lot about the state of society today... "distributed trust" and communual free sharing was the norm, until companies started to herd users into their walled gardens and control them by using the "security" argument.
- 2-4-Flinching 9y agoThe only impact? You are a walking vulnerability. KRACK, Blueborne, just to name a few recently highly publicized vulnerabilities. You are like the perfect exploit, just waiting to get pwned. You are, Bill Harper.
- ekianjo 9y agoMost wifi router vendors have STILL not fixed the KRACK vulnerability. Looks like most companies dont care about user security at all.
- gruez 9y agoKRACK only compromises the client, not the AP (unless you have one in relay mode or something)
- mjevans 9y agoFrom that side, this is why I insist on only buying devices 'supported' by OpenWRT / LEDE. LEDE, thanks to being open source, had a patch within days, which worked across all supported devices. I would honestly just prefer the manufacturers 'give up' in house router software and instead contribute to the community software.
- gsich 9y agoSo? The issue is on the client side. Unless you use wlan client, or repeater stuff with your AP.
- murderfs 9y agoKRACK is essentially irrelevant, the security models of the OS and any sane applications will assume that the network is compromised (e.g. starbucks wifi). Blueborne on the other hand, is very scary.
- deathanatos 9y agoI, like the parent poster, am running the latest update for my phone. Yes, I know I'm a walking vulnerability, but short of purchasing a new phone, there is nothing I can do about it. IIRC, updates for my device were cut off before it was even out of warranty, and I'm sorry, I'm not dropping — I can't drop — $600 every year and a half on new hardware just to get new software. Vendors need to support devices for the actual lifetime of the device.
- patcheudor 9y agoMany Android devices of that age and even newer had flaws resulting in the failure to properly validate HTTPS connections as they would accept invalid certificates. As a result, every time I fire up an off the shelf WiFi Pineapple in public and run SSLSplit (not to be confused with Moxies SSLStrip), I get credential after credential, typically starting with e-mail accounts. This is obviously bad because if someone is using an e-mail account on their phone for banking, an attacker could gain access to account recovery. These are the sorts of transparent attacks you don't notice and which cannot be mitigated with anti-virus or avoiding downloading sketchy apps. The sketchy stuff is already running on the device in the form of the OS and apps you use within it. Note that a large number of these vectors were never publicly disclosed including a vulnerability with Samsung Knox that I reported. When it was in use, the device would accept any cert.
- 5ilv3r 9y agoIsn't it telling that the antifeatures pushed by the updates are so much worse than the threat of data interception?
- guelo 9y agoMost of these "oh no, security!" issues can be mitigated by avoiding public WiFi or using a VPN on them.
- patcheudor 9y agoVPN can be a problem, especially on these older devices as those services themselves are vulnerable due to underlying OS issues. In terms of WiFi, keep in mind LTE is effectively broken because of the emergency tower redirection implementation. It's possible for attackers to direct devices to their own OpenLTE tower. https://sourceforge.net/projects/openlte/files/ https://sourceforge.net/projects/openlte/files/
- yaantc 9y ago> keep in mind LTE is effectively broken because of the emergency tower > redirection implementation And it will fails after only a few message, when the phone modem tries to authenticate the network (MME) and fails. LTE and 3G do have mandatory mutual authentication where the device authenticates the network very early on. It's 2G that's the problem: a 2G network does authenticate the device, but not the other way round, which opens the door to the well known MITM attacks on 2G (stingrays). The worst a LTE/3G rogue cell can do is try to attack the modem during the early non-authenticated messages (send corrupted messages), and waste UE time or jam it. But it can't do MITM. So if you're paranoid and you can afford it due to good 3G/4G coverage, disable 2G on your handset ;)
- johnchristopher 9y agoWhy would making and receiving calls and texts and checking email not work on current devices in a couple of years ?
- Nition 9y agoNo, the OP means any new phone will just be obsolete again in a couple of years, so why bother if their current obsolete phone is good enough anyway.
- johnchristopher 9y agoAh, I see :-D. Thank you for the clarification.