4 ms·

Android 5 was released in 2014. It's time to move on.

mqus 7y ago
Is anything which is older than 6 years considered legacy now? Should this be the expected lifetime of smartphones? Please not.
- bhhaskin 7y ago
  The current expected lifetime of a smartphone (and laptop for that matter) is about 2-3 years. After that the batteries start to degrade. when the batteries start to degrade most devices start to down clock to preserve battery life. And even if they don't down clock they stop being as useful as their intended purpose.
- yoavm 7y ago
  It doesn't mean that you should toss your phone away, but from a security perspective your operating system is very much a legacy if it didn't get any updates for 6 years. Luckily on Android your can often flash an alternative ROM when official updates are over.
- kelnos 7y ago
  In software terms, yes, you should avoid running anything internet-connected that hasn't been updated in that long. The problem is, of course, manufacturers who refuse to support their phones with updates for more than a couple years. Many 6-year-old phones work just fine (some needing battery replacements at some point), but any 6-year-old phone that hasn't had updates in 3-4 years sadly just shouldn't be used if you value security at all.
- BorgHunter 7y ago
  Smartphones, no (although with batteries being almost universally not replaceable now, six years is usually a difficult prospect without some delicate surgery), but a particular version of an OS, I think six years is plenty reasonable. The root of the problem is that phones have so much proprietary hardware with closed source drivers that prevent the end-user from keeping the OS up-to-date like we can on PCs. If I wanted to, I could put a completely modern version of Linux on a 15-year-old desktop and it'd work fine, assuming the hardware's still fine. But with phone OSs you're completely at the mercy of your phone's manufacturer for OS releases, and so "six year old smartphone" necessarily means "smartphone missing probably at least 2-3 years of security updates and multiple OS versions behind the latest". It doesn't have to be that way, but that's the world phone manufacturers have created for us, and they have no incentive to change it.
- zoonosis 7y ago
  You shouldn't be running outdated software on an internet connected device. I don't think any company updates their Android phones for that long. Samsung supports their devices for 3 years. Google might be a bit longer for the Pixel devices but they did drop their old Nexus line quicker. This isn't to say that the hardware needs to be given up on. If you want to use a community developed custom ROM like LineageOS then you can use a device longer. I don't think any high end devices have user replaceable batteries and the battery is likely to be very degraded after 6 years of use.
- neurostimulant 7y ago
  If you plan to use an android phone for a long time (>2 years as manufacturer very rarely push updates beyond year 2), you should at least try to purchase a phone with active community support. For example, LineageOS wiki provide a list of such devices here: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/
yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago
When was its last update, though? ex. Ubuntu 14.04 was supported through last April.

mqus 7y ago

Is anything which is older than 6 years considered legacy now? Should this be the expected lifetime of smartphones? Please not.

bhhaskin 7y ago
The current expected lifetime of a smartphone (and laptop for that matter) is about 2-3 years. After that the batteries start to degrade. when the batteries start to degrade most devices start to down clock to preserve battery life. And even if they don't down clock they stop being as useful as their intended purpose.
yoavm 7y ago
It doesn't mean that you should toss your phone away, but from a security perspective your operating system is very much a legacy if it didn't get any updates for 6 years. Luckily on Android your can often flash an alternative ROM when official updates are over.
kelnos 7y ago
In software terms, yes, you should avoid running anything internet-connected that hasn't been updated in that long. The problem is, of course, manufacturers who refuse to support their phones with updates for more than a couple years. Many 6-year-old phones work just fine (some needing battery replacements at some point), but any 6-year-old phone that hasn't had updates in 3-4 years sadly just shouldn't be used if you value security at all.
BorgHunter 7y ago
Smartphones, no (although with batteries being almost universally not replaceable now, six years is usually a difficult prospect without some delicate surgery), but a particular version of an OS, I think six years is plenty reasonable. The root of the problem is that phones have so much proprietary hardware with closed source drivers that prevent the end-user from keeping the OS up-to-date like we can on PCs. If I wanted to, I could put a completely modern version of Linux on a 15-year-old desktop and it'd work fine, assuming the hardware's still fine. But with phone OSs you're completely at the mercy of your phone's manufacturer for OS releases, and so "six year old smartphone" necessarily means "smartphone missing probably at least 2-3 years of security updates and multiple OS versions behind the latest". It doesn't have to be that way, but that's the world phone manufacturers have created for us, and they have no incentive to change it.
zoonosis 7y ago
You shouldn't be running outdated software on an internet connected device. I don't think any company updates their Android phones for that long. Samsung supports their devices for 3 years. Google might be a bit longer for the Pixel devices but they did drop their old Nexus line quicker. This isn't to say that the hardware needs to be given up on. If you want to use a community developed custom ROM like LineageOS then you can use a device longer. I don't think any high end devices have user replaceable batteries and the battery is likely to be very degraded after 6 years of use.
neurostimulant 7y ago
If you plan to use an android phone for a long time (>2 years as manufacturer very rarely push updates beyond year 2), you should at least try to purchase a phone with active community support. For example, LineageOS wiki provide a list of such devices here: https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/

yjftsjthsd-h 7y ago

When was its last update, though? ex. Ubuntu 14.04 was supported through last April.