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I don't see a 3-year security update as an irony. In fact, I see that as a great gesture for the budget price point android phone has a 3-year software warranty
by devy 4y ago
I don't see a 3-year security update as an irony. In fact, I see that as a great gesture for the budget price point android phone has a 3-year software warranty. Nokia probably have done research on this pricing segment to know that the averaging budget android device lifecycle is about 2.x years and guarantee a 3 year security update to make the device more worthy, comparing to other brands at this price point. By the way, NO ONE offer unlimited years of security updates, even Apple iPhone as the gold standard only provide security updates up to 6-7 years but Apple charges at least 2 times of the price.
- cvalka 4y agoThe 3 year security update policy was the requirement for Android one.
- nilespotter 4y agoAt least 2 times the price... at least, indeed: > The Nokia G22 will cost from £149.99
- Angostura 4y agoThey should offer paid-for upgrades after 3 years
- IncRnd 4y agoThat would increase the cost of the phone, since they would have to support and test the phone long past the expected lifetime. But, this is marketed as a budget phone, so they aren't going to do that.
- thepangolino 4y agoThat’s why he said paid for.
- IncRnd 4y agoThis is a budget phone, so there are very few people who would purchase extended security support after three years. There certainly won't be enough to cover the business costs for keeping the support and testing of an old crufty phone used by few people. It's unsustainable to put the costs on the backend, so phone's price would have to be raised to cover those extended security updates. But, that won't happen for a budget phone. There just won't be enough people willing to pay after three years. That's the problem with purchasing a budget phone. You get what you pay for, a phone that will go away soon.
- atleta 4y agoUnless the price of the upgrades cover the support. Yes, of course, it would be a gamble, because nobody can predict what the demand would be in 3-4-5 years. But I wonder whether they could reduce the cost with smart software engineering (i.e whether they could compel themselves to do smarter software engineering by promising paid upgrades) or whether they could make a promise to make paid upgrades OR open sourcing the code for the components that will be different from the newer versions. (I.e. mainly the hardware drivers.) Yes, I know licensing issues may indeed pose problems for third party components.
- el_snark 4y agoPretty sure the Custom ROM crew will leap on this one, so flashing it with one of those seems like it will be an option.
- scheeseman486 4y agoThe long term practicality of this depends on mainline kernel support. LineageOS is cool, but the thing no one talks about is that while the Android stack might get updated, the kernel often isn't, which means any kernel level exploits remain unpatched after the support period ends. Which is why this reads as kind of a stunt. A repairable phone is great, but if it becomes unsafe to use then what's the point? The software needs to be "repairable" too.
- diffeomorphism 4y agoFor how much? This is something that might make sense for flagship phones: getting two more years out of a $1000 phone is something people might pay for. For a $200 phone not so much.
- Angostura 4y agoIn that case replacing the battery doesn't make sense either.
- ip26 4y agoThe irony is that repairable devices are implied to be maintainable as well, e.g. you can generally keep them in good working order as long as you please. Reasonable or not, a security update sunset contradicts this possibility.
- mrelectric 4y agoRepairable phone implies level of technical competency. You're not the target audience. Target audience will have no problem installing alternative ROM
- flippinburgers 4y agoThe ROM doesn't cover all of the software that runs on a phone to my understanding. We need truly open phones.
- ip26 4y agoIs that really the market they are going for? I’ve dissected, rooted, etc but that hardly seems like a business play or a market of any significant size.
- scheeseman486 4y agoCustom roms are a half-solution unless Unisoc have solid mainline support in the kernel, so that it can be updated past the support period without hacking in blobs. Custom ROMs can also be less secure (and less useful as many applications annoyingly check for verity) if the manufacturer doesn't allow access to low level hardware security features.
- ClumsyPilot 4y ago> Apple iPhone as the gold standard only provide security updates up to 6-7 years Laughs in Microsoft How about 20 years?! I have a laptop built in 2006, it runs Windows 10 and will be supported untill 2025. It can also run software compiled in 1999! What platform can beat it, an IBM mainframe? Microsoft is the gold standard! Its a shame they never get credit for the one thing they do well.
- DaiPlusPlus 4y agoThey needlessly broke the start-menu and taskbar in Windows 8 and Windows 11 for no good reason. And there still isn’t a coherent native desktop-app dev story for Windows. Even MS is using Electron for their own software. One step forward, two steps back.
- jen20 4y agoYou missed the implied “for phones” in there.
- Dylan16807 4y agoWell a lot of people are looking at Windows 11, which launched in 2021 and required a ~2018 CPU. Especially when Intel's 8th generation chips were barely different from the ones going back years. Chips close to that cutoff are going to have awful support lifetimes from microsoft if you can't get updates past 2025.
- doubled112 4y agoI laughed out loud when the Ryzen 7 1700X (8c/16t @ 3.4GHz) in my main desktop didn't meet the minimum system requirements. It's just 5 years old now, and I have a funny feeling it'll be more than powerful enough for a while yet.
- vxNsr 4y agoThey’re ways to get around the restrictions though I don’t know why you’d want to. Windows 11 is a virus
- fencepost 4y agoBy comparison to the Samsung Galaxy A series this is unimpressive. Everything in that line is either 2 OS upgrades/4 years of security updates or 4 OS upgrades/5 years of security updates. That's all the way down to the A03s which is <US$100. Those are from the release date of the phone, but I think they're doing roughly annual releases on that line. Edit: Samsung also planned for longer device life - there's an option to turn on a battery saver feature that caps charge at 85%, which should significantly increase the years of service from the battery.
- ohuhuhu 4y agoI was recently looking for support cycles for Android phones but failed to find anything concrete. Can you point me to where Samsung have documented their support cycle?
- paraselene_ 4y agoThis was their original announcement article https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-sets-the-new-standard-with-four-generations-of-os-upgrades-to-ensure-the-most-up-to-date-and-more-secure-galaxy-experience https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-sets-the-new-standar... This is their current security update list (not os updates) https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb "... And select devices launched in 2019 or later will be supported with firmware security updates for a minimum of four (4) years following their global launch, while select newer devices will receive up to five (5) years of security updates." It's a good start I'd say, considering that Samsung is a major player in the android phone space.
- fencepost 4y agoOn their product pages for each phone, expand the section to compare phone models and it's listed for each in the Security section. https://www.samsung.com/us/smartphones/galaxy-a53-5g/ https://www.samsung.com/us/smartphones/galaxy-a53-5g/
- ohuhuhu 4y ago
- majou 4y agoYou're mistaken; the iPhone 5s--10 years old come Autumn--received a security update on January 23rd (iOS 12.5.7). As the first 64-bit phone and the first phone with a proper Secure Enclave (TPM+biometric auth) it's received a lot of love from Apple.
- onphonenow 4y agoMy father in his 70s has stuck with one of these old phones. I keep on expecting them to end security updates - no go. The idea that apple makes unrepairable throwaway phones makes me laugh. Easier to resell and easy to get fixed (I use applecare with no complaints)
- Pxtl 4y agoThe problem with that "3 years of update" promise is afaik it only counts if you buy it on launch day. One would expect that kind of guarantee to start on the last day they sell the device, not the first one.
- flippinburgers 4y agoYes with phones. It is honestly disgusting because it generates so much unnecessary waste. I have a PC that I build myself over 9 years ago and run linux on. I upgrade hardware as needed but I will never have to worry about security update nonsense.
- realusername 4y ago> even Apple iPhone as the gold standard only provide security updates up to 6-7 years but Apple charges at least 2 times of the price. And it's not a fair comparison either, an iPhone which isn't updated is a big security issue due to everything being so coupled to the OS, on Android it depends of the security flaw affected itself. I'm not defending the poor upgradability to Android but they worked around that a lot.
- cubefox 4y ago> Nokia probably have done research on this pricing segment to know that the averaging budget android device lifecycle is about 2.x years I don't think that's remotely true. People who buy budget phones are not typically the tech enthusiasts who buy new phones every two years. Instead the market analysis has likely shown that people are way more impressed by "repairability" than by "long security updates". Otherwise we would long have Android phones with security update durations similar to iOS.