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Google ends major OS support for Nexus phones and Pixel tablet
- alphabettsy 9y agoThat’s beyond pathetic. I purchased a new Nexus 6P from Best Buy in November 2016, and now it’s not going to be updated anymore, but my grandmas iPhone 6 (Fall 2014) will be?
- bsimpson 9y agoTitle is misleading - should say "Google ends major OS support for Nexus 5x, 6p, and Pixel C"
- melling 9y agoThe 6p and Pixel C aren’t even 3 years old. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_6P https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_6P People probably bought them 2 years ago.
- neogodless 9y agoRight - on sale around November 2015? 2 years OS, 3 years security. I actually got a Nexus 6P in July 2017 (under $300 like new). It's a great phone - we'll see how it's running in December when the security updates dry up. Maybe it'll be time to get something else if I'm worried about unpatched security flaws.
- rlanday 9y agoAndroid P isn’t going to be released until later this year. So if you ignore prerelease builds, these devices will have had the latest OS for about three years after they first went on sale.
- alphabettsy 9y agoThey didn’t stop selling them until Oct 2016 so that’s barely more than a year for some.
- astrodust 9y agoFor some their contract/lease hasn't even run out yet. This is ridiculous.
- paulie_a 9y agoIn general if you buy android, you basically should never expect any support or upgrades what so ever. If there is an update, count yourself lucky.
- washadjeffmad 9y agoI got a Pixel C for my mom when I got my launch Pixel in 2016 and have been extremely disappointed in the lack of application and feature parity on the C, despite being on 8.1. Luckily, I can just switch it over to an open project like Lineage OS (limited to 14.1/Android 7.1) or one of the many on XDA, but this isn't a choice for all hardware. Because I've had this happen before, the capability to put my own choice of OS on the device just happened to inform my decision to purchase it.
- smnrchrds 9y agoHow is it misleading? Pixel C is the only Pixel tablet Google ever released, and Nexus 5X and 6P were the last phones from the Nexus line, before they switched to Pixel line. Ending support for these devices means ending "major OS support for Nexus phones and Pixel tablet". Support for earlier versions had already been dropped.
- stefan_ 9y agoThe irony of stopping major OS support for older phones because you introduced yet another layer of abstraction to make major OS support for older phones easier.
- ploxiln 9y agoYup. And the sadness of being dependent on SoC vendor's kernels/drivers. Basically only Apple is capable of fully supporting their phones, because no one company does as much of their tech stack in-house as Apple. (Samsung is close, but does not really understand software... and I say this stuff as a long-time android-only user, and Samsung employee...)
- thisacctforreal 9y agoFor comparison; the iPhone 5s from September 2013 is still receiving updates, and still runs like a charm.
- craftyguy 9y ago> and still runs like a charm. Not according to the rest of the world: http://bgr.com/2018/03/06/iphone-6s-speed-test-old-vs-new-battery-slowdown/ http://bgr.com/2018/03/06/iphone-6s-speed-test-old-vs-new-ba... edit: I guess I was wrong, though I can't find any evidence to suggest that the 5s is exempt from this behavior other than "some reddit users reported it doesn't happen to them"
- turtlebits 9y agoThe 5s was not throttled.
- za23weo 9y agoThough I see a difference between "obsoleted to prop up sales of new gadgets" and "throttled to improve stability", Apple failed at comms here. But it's the modern mantra to do it anyway and apologize if someone complains. Cause really, why spend time/money in advance of a possible non-issue? Free market decided long ago customers were the product, not the customer. We will be treated how they want and appear to put up with it just fine, given the stock market.
- potato 9y agoMore info on this support page: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208387 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208387 > For iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 7, and iPhone 7 Plus, iOS dynamically manages performance peaks to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down so that the iPhone can still be used.
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- craftyguy 9y agoThis isn't surprising. Google has had their device EOL plans up and public for many moons now: https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#nexus_devices https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#nexus_...
- foepys 9y agoI own a Nexus 5X and I'm very satisfied with it. Even the battery is holding up after 2 years of daily usage and loading from <20% to ~90%. While it's sad to see that I wont get Android 9, I'm happy with the Android updates I got for my phone. It never got slower, rather quicker with every update. At least I can count on Google giving me security updates once a month.
- kss238 9y agoWhat do you use your 5X for though? I couldn't get more than 2 hours of video streaming on mine in a single charge and it was less than 1 year old.
- foepys 9y agoI regularly watch Netflix on mine and I can get about 3 hours with 90% charge and then have some left over for other stuff. Maybe it's because I only have about 20 non-Google apps installed, of which are 3 web browsers, 2 are chat apps, 2 CardDAV and CalDAV apps, a better calendar, and Spotify, Netflix, Twitch, and Amazon Video. All Google apps except Maps, YouTube, Calendar, Messages, Camera, and Phone got deactivated. If anything looks like it's using a resource hungry background service it doesn't need, it simply gets uninstalled. What I did from the beginning to keep the battery in a good shape was to never load over night to 100%. I plug in my phone before showering and eating breakfast in the morning and this loads it up to 90%. But I don't plan my day around charging my phone, even when it sounds like it - when my phone needs charging, I charge it. One thing I also did, that might impact battery performance: I deactivated animations entirely. They are unnecessary and keep me waiting for things I could do a lot faster. As a side-effect some loading spinners aren't animated anymore and show a static circle shaped arrow but that's okay for me.
- azdle 9y agoHelp me https://postmarketos.org/ https://postmarketos.org/, you're my only hope. I don't really know what changed, but I used to be the guy who always wanted the new phone (or <insert really any "device" here>), but ever since I got my 5X I just haven't wanted anything more hardware-wise. I really hope that some of the long-life, open source, replacement OSs for phones take off.
- hojjat12000 9y agoThere is hope. Checkout: https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-5x/development https://forum.xda-developers.com/nexus-5x/development
- luckydata 9y agoOh man, the 5X was such a piece of junk at the end of its useful time as a phone. I never really liked it, while the Pixel 2 I'm using now I can definitely see myself using it for a bit longer.
- floatboth 9y ago> end of its useful time as a phone Huh? My 5X feels like new to me, absolutely love it. Running LineageOS (just upgraded to 15.1 Oreo), never had any problems.
- sebasmurphy 9y agoI really like my 5x. It's gone back to LG for the bootloop fix once. Hopin I get at least another 2 years out of it.
- limeblack 9y agoMy frustration is that you used to be able to buy a used Nexus phone from craigslist, ebay or really anyone and know it was going to be ROMable. Now we have 2 different Pixel phones. The Verizon models and Google models(which have an unlocked bootloader). It has made the resell market an absolute pain. For me the disappearance of the Nexus will be the disappearance of a guaranteed flashable phone
- hojjat12000 9y agoI have a Nexus 6 (Not 6P) and I'm running Android 8.1! Although it is officially dead, but the good thing about Nexus/Pixel phones is that it is easy to port the new version of android to them (unofficially). My phone works better with the custom ROM than with the stock android! I know the average person won't go through all the trouble to flash a custom ROM on their phone, but this was one of the reason that I bought a Nexus in the first place, the community support at XDA. Edit: Nexus 6 came to market in 2014. I bought it in 2015 and after years of usage, it has never been faster and snappier. Android 8.1 is quick and it gave my phone a new life.
- ben_jones 9y agoI'm interested in a phone like this for members of my family who are constantly replacing their phones purely for "snapiness". Are there off the shelf vendors where you can buy phones without bloatware, with decent upgrade paths? I would so happily pay for this.
- hojjat12000 9y agoI think Google provides the longest upgrade period among all Android phones (Which clearly is not enough). But the good thing about Nexus/Pixel is that the bootloader is unlocked (if you buy Pixel from the Google store not Verizon). An unlocked bootloader enables you to flash cutom ROMs on your phone. For snappiness, most of new phones with Android 8.1 are fast enough. But again, if there is a big community for that phone in XDA (like with Nexus phones), and the bootloader is unlocked, you will be able to flash new versions of Android for a long time.
- zaarn 9y agoIf you like snappy I do recommend to go into the developer options and disabling or reducing the animation time. It feels a lot snappier even if you had no problems to begin with (some apps do break if you set animation to 0)
- VyseofArcadia 9y agoThere is a comment I remember from slashdot a million years ago after yet another gmail design. I'm paraphrasing, but was something along the lines of, when is Google going to stop redesigning things and just position all the UI elements randomly every time you open gmail? I'm starting to feel similarly about major Android release. Just for example, why move the clock? Why? After almost a decade of looking at the upper right, I'm going to have to hunt for it every time I need it.
- owyn 9y agoI would totally run that experiment on April 1. Run a multi-armed bandit to pick the best UI and voila! The perfect crowd sourced user interface design.
- stefan_ 9y agoThey knew it themselves, even. At one point a favorite pastime of the Android team was counting how many clocks were displayed: https://youtu.be/rimXGaUdaLg?t=48m1s https://youtu.be/rimXGaUdaLg?t=48m1s
- saurik 9y agoThis is just pathetic. You buy a piece of hardware that could trivially keep working for 5-8 years, and it becomes actively dangerous to use, not just for the owner but to everyone else (think botnets), after 3 years because the vendor stops giving security updates for its software? This should be illegal.
- blacksmith_tb 9y agoI am annoyed that my Nexus 6P isn't getting support longer, sure, though there's always LineageOS[1]. I'd say the lack of an SD card slot and user-hostile, hard-to-replace batteries make the 5-8 year lifespan much harder to really imagine, though. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LineageOS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LineageOS
- amyjess 9y agoOh, it's not the battery that'll shorten the lifespan of the 5X and the 6P. It's the CPU. I've already had to replace my 5X under warranty twice. The second time was because of the bootloop problem, which will happen to every single device equipped with the Snapdragon 808 eventually. My phone is basically living on borrowed time. And honestly, the next time it dies, I'm done with high-end devices. Having had to replace my phone twice in under two years has convinced me that I should treat my phones as if they were disposable, and so I'm going to buy my next phone at "disposable" prices. My next phone will probably be a Moto E4 or something in a similar price range (and I'd be willing to buy a $50 Chinese shitphone if only I could find one with AOSP and not some shitty custom UI).
- ce4 9y agoYou don't want the cheapest. Better something nice like a Xiaomi Mi A1. It is part of the Android One program (clutter free stock Android, timely updates) and doesnt cost a fortune.
- amyjess 9y agoI saw their webpage, and this jumped out at me: > full metal body Metal bodies fuck with my synesthesia—the feeling of metal on my fingers makes me ill—so that's a total dealbreaker. It has to be plastic.
- colept 9y agoWhy is this a surprise? Google's has shown a pattern that they don't care about your Android hardware since they partnered with HTC and released their first branded phone. - Nexus One / Paperweight Owner
- pan69 9y agoI'm still on my Nexus 5. There hasn't been any phone worth upgrading to, that I'm aware of. If I knew that the Pixel would be so over the top expensive I have upgraded to the 5X at the time it was released but I was hoping that skipping a release would be worth it. I wouldn't mind a Pixel though, I'm just not going to pay $1000+ (AUD) for a phone. For me the Nexus 5 was the last phone that had a great form factor, good enough features and was sold at a reasonable price.
- bspn 9y agoI was a long-time Nexus 5 user and upgraded to the Essential PH-1 last year and can't say I regret the decision. The 5 is still my favorite all-time phone given context, but the PH-1 is a pretty significant step up and has one of the prettiest form factors I've experienced. Some owners have experienced teething issues with the device, but it's been super smooth for me and I've been impressed with the speed of the updates (as you'd expect being an Andy Rubin company).
- pan69 9y agoThat's actually a great suggestion. I was looking at this last year but completely forgot about it.
- tonfa 9y agoFor what is worth the 5 is better than the 5X in almost every dimension (I regretted switching). (And the 5 has a chance of still working after 5 years, you're lucky if a 5X is not dead from bootloop after 2).
- sebasmurphy 9y agoI loved my 5. Wish it had full Fi support or I wouldn't have upgraded.
- mjrpes 9y agoI had the Nexus 5 until last month. Was nearly a perfect phone. Unfortunately the battery couldn't make it through a day (even with light usage), and you can't find a good replacement; replacement batteries are either OEM forgeries or cheap generics with questionable quality control. I ended up with the Essential Phone, which has worked out very well and seemed like a good value at $425. I can't justify to myself paying $600+ for a premium phone. EDIT: It's just a coincidence another poster mentioned the Essential phone. We aren't spammers! But for me the Essential phone, after it dropped in price to around $400, feels like a successor to the Nexus line: a good-valued uncluttered phone, with decent specs.
- zitterbewegung 9y agoThe iPhone 5S is still supported by Apple and was released on Sept 10th 2013 [1] . The last iPhone to be not supported by Apple was the iPhone 5 released on September 21, 2012 and ended support on July 19th 2017 [2]. They supported it for almost five years. The Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, and Pixel C were released on September 29, 2015. [3] [4]. Their software support ends today on March 7th which is slightly more than two years. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5S https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5S [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5 [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_C EDIT: I made a mistake in my last statement that I corrected. Thank you child comment :)
- simulate 9y ago> Their software support ends today on March 7th which is less than two years. If released in September 2015, then two years would be September 2017 and today would be more than two years. That is not to say that two and a half years is acceptable.
- bitmapbrother 9y ago>Their software support ends today on March 7th This refers to major OS updates only. They get security updates 3 years from the date of sale so these devices will continue to get monthly updates until October (and possibly through December) of this year.
- nunez 9y agoYes, it is. It also runs like poop.
- gaius 9y agoNo, for the animated poop you need iPhone X