4 ms·

It's funny that these kind of long-term "features" don't get taken into consideration for any of the phone reviews. Its probably one of the most important featu

by ricw 15y ago

It's funny that these kind of long-term "features" don't get taken into consideration for any of the phone reviews. Its probably one of the most important features of a phone. I'm currently torn apart between buying an iPhone 4s and the galaxy nexus, but given that I can expect the iphone to be supported and updated instantly and regulary for a long time, and not with any of the android phones (less than 2 years for the original nexus phone), I think iphone it will be.. despite prefering the openness of android.

gbog 15y ago
It took me 10 mn, excluding download time, to root a Nexus S and install the of my choice on it...
- nasmorn 15y ago
  But would you also like to do it for your mom and dad and wife and aunt and neighbor? If Android requires free geek labor to live up to its potential I sure am against it, because it would be my free labor that Google plans with here.
  - methodin 15y ago
    Your mom, dad, wife aunt and neighbor wouldn't even know what the hell you are talking about so being on version X has no particular significance to anyone outside of the tech community.
    - loire280 15y ago
      Developers care. What use are the new shiny features in Ice Cream Sandwich when I need to make my app compatible with phones on Eclair or Froyo to access a sufficiently broad portion of the Android install base? If developers are wary of developing for Android - especially the latest-and-greatest - that will affect the satisfaction of regular users.
      - gbog 15y ago
        We are turning in circles here. 1. ricw: I'll buy iPhone because Android has no OS upgrade 2. gbog (me): You can root 3. nasmorn: Mom, dad need you to root, annoying 4. methodin: Mom, dad don't care to upgrade OS 5. loire280: But we care. It reminds me when a bunch of old trolls tried to play with me on usenet decades ago. No thanks.
        methodin 15y ago
        Developers = You can root Others = It doesnt matter That pretty much sums it up.
bad_user 15y ago
There's a flaw with that list ... it makes it seem like iOS 5 is supported on iPhone 1 and iPhone 3G. It isn't and there's nothing you can do about it. It is deceptive, and for HTC G1, the first Android device, official support may not be good, but you can painlessly install Froyo on it, because it isn't locked and Froyo works well on it. You can also install Gingerbread for that matter, but CyanogenMod dropped the support for it because of severe hardware limitations. Basically if you get a Google blessed phone, like the Nexus One, or the Nexus S, or the next Nexus, you will be able to install the latest Android as long as the hardware itself is capable enough. I do agree that iPhones are a lot more comfortable.
- loire280 15y ago
  The chart cuts off after 3 years - the point is that the original iPhone was supported with the current version of iOS for 2 years after the last one was sold (minus two days - iOS 4, the first version to drop support, came out June 21, 2010). On AT&T, at least, most iPhone customers are eligible for an upgrade after 18 months because of the cost of their plan, so everyone was eligible, by a significant margin, for an upgrade before their phone was droppped.
  - ajanuary 15y ago
    Not true if you got a 2nd generation iPhone. You could have gotten a 3G as the latest phone and been unsupported for 9 months on an 18 month contract.
    - loire280 15y ago
      True, and I've heard that iOS 4 didn't run so well on the iPhone 3G in the first place. However, even once support was dropped, the iPhone 3G was still on the current major version (4.3, a relatively minor update, is the version that dropped 3G support), and it doesn't seem like apps required 4.3 until well after that version was out. That's a big difference than being 1-3 major versions behind on Android (especially considering the rather substantial changes in each major version of Android).
    - 15y ago
lukejduncan 15y ago
Don't buy a galaxy nexus. I was an Android fan boy and bought the Nexus One. "It's a Google phone!" I thought. I figured it would get timely updates and be a stable phone. It's far from stable. I think a good anecdote for my frustrations is navigation. When I first bought the phone, I wasn't able to turn the screen off during navigation. I would turn it off, and it would turn itself back on draining my battery. An update came along and fixed it. For a little while it worked as I expected. Another update came along and now I can turn my screen off when navigating but 50% of the time when I do I have to unlock my screen. Over time Android and it's core feature set have been consistently inconsistent. At first it's forgiveable because you assume upgrades will fix it, but its hard to call it anything but extremely poor quality at this point. My next phone will be an iPhone
- gujk 15y ago
  Sad but true. Keyboard or Market or Launcher or something crashes every day on my N1. These are core OS components on the reference device sold by the platform owner. The ridiculous thing is that these apps relaunch and work fine on the 2nd or 3rd try, so why does Google give me an annoying crash popup instead of relaunching (like Browser is sometimes clever enough to do)
  - lukejduncan 15y ago
    Adding to this story: Nexus One denied Ice Cream Sandwich, becomes official relic of Android's yesteryears http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/26/nexus-one-denied-ice-cream-sandwich-becomes-official-relic-of-a/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/26/nexus-one-denied-ice-crea...
drivebyacct2 15y ago
Nexus phones and "other Android" phones are almost entirely different breeds. That's the sad thing, people use Sense or Blur devices and get a bad taste in their mouthes when the pure Android experience is often more pleasant and consistent.

by ricw 15y ago

gbog 15y ago

It took me 10 mn, excluding download time, to root a Nexus S and install the of my choice on it...

nasmorn 15y ago
But would you also like to do it for your mom and dad and wife and aunt and neighbor? If Android requires free geek labor to live up to its potential I sure am against it, because it would be my free labor that Google plans with here.
- methodin 15y ago
  Your mom, dad, wife aunt and neighbor wouldn't even know what the hell you are talking about so being on version X has no particular significance to anyone outside of the tech community.
  - loire280 15y ago
    Developers care. What use are the new shiny features in Ice Cream Sandwich when I need to make my app compatible with phones on Eclair or Froyo to access a sufficiently broad portion of the Android install base? If developers are wary of developing for Android - especially the latest-and-greatest - that will affect the satisfaction of regular users.
    - gbog 15y ago
      We are turning in circles here. 1. ricw: I'll buy iPhone because Android has no OS upgrade 2. gbog (me): You can root 3. nasmorn: Mom, dad need you to root, annoying 4. methodin: Mom, dad don't care to upgrade OS 5. loire280: But we care. It reminds me when a bunch of old trolls tried to play with me on usenet decades ago. No thanks.
      - methodin 15y ago
        Developers = You can root Others = It doesnt matter That pretty much sums it up.

bad_user 15y ago

There's a flaw with that list ... it makes it seem like iOS 5 is supported on iPhone 1 and iPhone 3G. It isn't and there's nothing you can do about it. It is deceptive, and for HTC G1, the first Android device, official support may not be good, but you can painlessly install Froyo on it, because it isn't locked and Froyo works well on it. You can also install Gingerbread for that matter, but CyanogenMod dropped the support for it because of severe hardware limitations. Basically if you get a Google blessed phone, like the Nexus One, or the Nexus S, or the next Nexus, you will be able to install the latest Android as long as the hardware itself is capable enough. I do agree that iPhones are a lot more comfortable.

loire280 15y ago
The chart cuts off after 3 years - the point is that the original iPhone was supported with the current version of iOS for 2 years after the last one was sold (minus two days - iOS 4, the first version to drop support, came out June 21, 2010). On AT&T, at least, most iPhone customers are eligible for an upgrade after 18 months because of the cost of their plan, so everyone was eligible, by a significant margin, for an upgrade before their phone was droppped.
- ajanuary 15y ago
  Not true if you got a 2nd generation iPhone. You could have gotten a 3G as the latest phone and been unsupported for 9 months on an 18 month contract.
  - loire280 15y ago
    True, and I've heard that iOS 4 didn't run so well on the iPhone 3G in the first place. However, even once support was dropped, the iPhone 3G was still on the current major version (4.3, a relatively minor update, is the version that dropped 3G support), and it doesn't seem like apps required 4.3 until well after that version was out. That's a big difference than being 1-3 major versions behind on Android (especially considering the rather substantial changes in each major version of Android).
  - 15y ago

lukejduncan 15y ago

Don't buy a galaxy nexus. I was an Android fan boy and bought the Nexus One. "It's a Google phone!" I thought. I figured it would get timely updates and be a stable phone. It's far from stable. I think a good anecdote for my frustrations is navigation. When I first bought the phone, I wasn't able to turn the screen off during navigation. I would turn it off, and it would turn itself back on draining my battery. An update came along and fixed it. For a little while it worked as I expected. Another update came along and now I can turn my screen off when navigating but 50% of the time when I do I have to unlock my screen. Over time Android and it's core feature set have been consistently inconsistent. At first it's forgiveable because you assume upgrades will fix it, but its hard to call it anything but extremely poor quality at this point. My next phone will be an iPhone

gujk 15y ago
Sad but true. Keyboard or Market or Launcher or something crashes every day on my N1. These are core OS components on the reference device sold by the platform owner. The ridiculous thing is that these apps relaunch and work fine on the 2nd or 3rd try, so why does Google give me an annoying crash popup instead of relaunching (like Browser is sometimes clever enough to do)
- lukejduncan 15y ago
  Adding to this story: Nexus One denied Ice Cream Sandwich, becomes official relic of Android's yesteryears http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/26/nexus-one-denied-ice-cream-sandwich-becomes-official-relic-of-a/ http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/26/nexus-one-denied-ice-crea...

drivebyacct2 15y ago

Nexus phones and "other Android" phones are almost entirely different breeds. That's the sad thing, people use Sense or Blur devices and get a bad taste in their mouthes when the pure Android experience is often more pleasant and consistent.