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This article was written in 2018... Android one is long dead, now the owners of inexpensive Android phones again have to guarantee that they will ever receive s

This article was written in 2018... Android one is long dead, now the owners of inexpensive Android phones again have to guarantee that they will ever receive security fixes or updates.

jerlam 2y ago
A lot of Android phones in the past two years (mainly from Google and Samsung) have very long update promises. These will slowly trickle onto the budget/used market and get updates longer than their expected lifespan.
- wkat4242 2y ago
  These new update policies don't apply to older models. When Samsung went to 7 years support with the S24, I never got that with my S23. It remained at 4. And that's a flagship class model.
  - jorvi 2y ago
    I agree with you that its a little ridiculous they don't retroactively apply the decision to at least the flagship models of yesteryear. So, 2024 - 7 = Galaxy S8 should still be getting security updates until end of year, 2024 - 4 = Galaxy S20 should have its final OS version upgrade this year.
    - wkat4242 2y ago
      Yeah I wish I could still use my S8. It was my best phone ever. I like my S23 but it misses so much. The notification LED, the pressure sensitive display, the edge screen (rounded edges), the iris scanner, the 3.5mm jack, the beautiful orchid grey back pattern. It even had a heart rate and SpO2 sensor. But being stuck on android 9 without security updates is just too much of a problem. The notification LED was so great to notice a missed call etc. An always on display is not as useful because it's so dim. You can't see it from a distance. It's more like an almost off display :) The LED you would easily notice across the room.
getwiththeprog 2y ago
I still get Android One security updates from Google on a Nokia 1.4
- pxoe 2y ago
  no way something that old gets security updates still...aaand it stopped getting security updates earlier this year. nokia's update promises are not great, often just about 2 to 3 years of updates. (combined with phones getting released on older android versions, like android 13, and having only two os upgrades which pretty much comes down to just one...just none with android 15 just about to drop, it's really not great.) which is maybe fair for phones that cheap, but samsung with quite competitive specs at the same price ranges offers longer update promises (something like A series, like A15 apparently promising 5 years of updates)
stavros 2y ago
For the price of an iPhone, you can get a new Android phone every eight months.
- tonyedgecombe 2y ago
  That's a lot of e-waste.
  - stavros 2y ago
    You don't have to buy the phones.
  - hulitu 2y ago
    > That's a lot of e-waste. Tell that to Google. They release almost every year a "new" Android version.
- _yb2s 2y ago
  iPhones don't need to be expensive, you can get new iPhones quite cheap. I paid about $100 for a brand new iPhone SE2 through a budget prepaid carrier with a projected support life of 8 years from when I bought it 2 years ago- a fairly common discount offer you can still find for new SE3s now. I don't think you can buy any usable Android phone for the $12 or so I'd have every 8 months instead of buying a base model iPhone. And Apple uses their top end CPUs and hardware in their cheap base model phones.
  - stavros 2y ago
    I don't understand how the down-payment on the loan you bought your phone on is relevant in this discussion.
    - _yb2s 2y ago
      What loan? That was a cash price for the phone connected to the month-to-month prepaid carrier I already used anyways because they had a very low monthly price with no contracts... and after just 60 days it is unlocked and can be used on any network. Indeed, after a few months I did switch to another prepaid carrier that had free data. If you take Tracfone for example, they have plans that are as cheap as about $8-15 a month depending on the term, so I don't think being locked in for 2 months on whatever carrier you already want to use is a "loan." Presumably you're using some carrier or wouldn't have a phone. Worst case scenario add $30 to the total price to use it as an unlocked phone. This is also generally the cheapest way to buy an Android phone. However, the cheap carrier versions of flagship Android phones are often banned from getting security updates for some reason.
hagbard_c 2y ago
That phone is now running LineageOS and with that will receive updates until the hardware is no longer capable of running a recent version of Android. While I do not know whether this the case for the specific phone mentioned in the (2018) article but it is true for my (2014) Samsung Galaxy SIIIneo, the (2013) Galaxy Tab 3, the two (2018) Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro devices, my daughter's (2015) Galaxy S6 Edge+, etc. Many if not most Android devices are more like PCs in that you're not stuck with whatever the vendor installed on them, instead you have the freedom to install your own OS distribution.
burgerrito 2y ago
My Samsung Galaxy A13, a budget phone. IIRC will get 4 years of security updates. Pretty good tbh

This article was written in 2018... Android one is long dead, now the owners of inexpensive Android phones again have to guarantee that they will ever receive security fixes or updates.

jerlam 2y ago

A lot of Android phones in the past two years (mainly from Google and Samsung) have very long update promises. These will slowly trickle onto the budget/used market and get updates longer than their expected lifespan.

wkat4242 2y ago
These new update policies don't apply to older models. When Samsung went to 7 years support with the S24, I never got that with my S23. It remained at 4. And that's a flagship class model.
- jorvi 2y ago
  I agree with you that its a little ridiculous they don't retroactively apply the decision to at least the flagship models of yesteryear. So, 2024 - 7 = Galaxy S8 should still be getting security updates until end of year, 2024 - 4 = Galaxy S20 should have its final OS version upgrade this year.
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    Yeah I wish I could still use my S8. It was my best phone ever. I like my S23 but it misses so much. The notification LED, the pressure sensitive display, the edge screen (rounded edges), the iris scanner, the 3.5mm jack, the beautiful orchid grey back pattern. It even had a heart rate and SpO2 sensor. But being stuck on android 9 without security updates is just too much of a problem. The notification LED was so great to notice a missed call etc. An always on display is not as useful because it's so dim. You can't see it from a distance. It's more like an almost off display :) The LED you would easily notice across the room.

getwiththeprog 2y ago

I still get Android One security updates from Google on a Nokia 1.4

pxoe 2y ago
no way something that old gets security updates still...aaand it stopped getting security updates earlier this year. nokia's update promises are not great, often just about 2 to 3 years of updates. (combined with phones getting released on older android versions, like android 13, and having only two os upgrades which pretty much comes down to just one...just none with android 15 just about to drop, it's really not great.) which is maybe fair for phones that cheap, but samsung with quite competitive specs at the same price ranges offers longer update promises (something like A series, like A15 apparently promising 5 years of updates)

stavros 2y ago

For the price of an iPhone, you can get a new Android phone every eight months.

tonyedgecombe 2y ago
That's a lot of e-waste.
- stavros 2y ago
  You don't have to buy the phones.
- hulitu 2y ago
  > That's a lot of e-waste. Tell that to Google. They release almost every year a "new" Android version.
_yb2s 2y ago
iPhones don't need to be expensive, you can get new iPhones quite cheap. I paid about $100 for a brand new iPhone SE2 through a budget prepaid carrier with a projected support life of 8 years from when I bought it 2 years ago- a fairly common discount offer you can still find for new SE3s now. I don't think you can buy any usable Android phone for the $12 or so I'd have every 8 months instead of buying a base model iPhone. And Apple uses their top end CPUs and hardware in their cheap base model phones.
- stavros 2y ago
  I don't understand how the down-payment on the loan you bought your phone on is relevant in this discussion.
  - _yb2s 2y ago
    What loan? That was a cash price for the phone connected to the month-to-month prepaid carrier I already used anyways because they had a very low monthly price with no contracts... and after just 60 days it is unlocked and can be used on any network. Indeed, after a few months I did switch to another prepaid carrier that had free data. If you take Tracfone for example, they have plans that are as cheap as about $8-15 a month depending on the term, so I don't think being locked in for 2 months on whatever carrier you already want to use is a "loan." Presumably you're using some carrier or wouldn't have a phone. Worst case scenario add $30 to the total price to use it as an unlocked phone. This is also generally the cheapest way to buy an Android phone. However, the cheap carrier versions of flagship Android phones are often banned from getting security updates for some reason.

hagbard_c 2y ago

That phone is now running LineageOS and with that will receive updates until the hardware is no longer capable of running a recent version of Android. While I do not know whether this the case for the specific phone mentioned in the (2018) article but it is true for my (2014) Samsung Galaxy SIIIneo, the (2013) Galaxy Tab 3, the two (2018) Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro devices, my daughter's (2015) Galaxy S6 Edge+, etc. Many if not most Android devices are more like PCs in that you're not stuck with whatever the vendor installed on them, instead you have the freedom to install your own OS distribution.

burgerrito 2y ago

My Samsung Galaxy A13, a budget phone. IIRC will get 4 years of security updates. Pretty good tbh