Now this is nice. Hopefully 3rd party manufacturers can also provide a longer life span for the device.
I’ll believe this in 7 years.
Every Pixel so far has been supported for as long or longer than it’s official support window. This isn’t a free chat app. It costs a lot and it comes with warranties and expectations for true spec sheets.
Also consider that the cost to do the maintenance updates has decreased due to extensive code refactoring and projects like Treble, Mainline, and the Generic Kernel Image. Major work in the platform has been focused on cutting these costs.
Speak for yourself, that’s 7 years of GrapheneOS support! What phone do you use which you think is squeaky clean?
Tbh, it’s Google. I can actually believe that they stick to their promises.
Ahem https://killedbygoogle.com/
Edit: my tone was tongue in cheek, I hope Google will keep its promise, but you know, they did us a Stadia after all.
The person you replied to is being downvoted, and yes, expecting support from Google is a meme, and Google deserves 100% of the negativity they’re receiving in this regard.
But, in their defense, they have always kept their word on keeping Pixels updated, and in some cases, have added on an additional year of support when not originally planned, including an extra full Android update for older devices.
So while they eventually kill every new software product they make, they’ve always kept their word on Pixel updates. I think the Pixel team has a lot more resources than the rest of Google, so I’m inclined to believe them for now, but I’ll be one of the first people grabbing a pitchfork if they don’t keep their word.
I’m guessing here, but are any of those products on that website both purchasable AND given a guaranteed product support time? Or to make it more specific, has Google ever killed off a phone (Nexus and Pixel years, so 15 years total) prior to its end of support date?
I don’t believe they have. Stadia, a non-phone product, is the closest thing. Of course it’s not a phone and Google also didn’t give a eol date before its release. When it was killed they refunded any purchased games. So I guess the better question is would you be fine with getting a refund in the amount of your purchase of a Pixel 8/Pro if they didn’t hold up their end of the bargain?
I know some of the comments in the community are tongue-in-cheek, but if Google were to keep the prior support date or do what they did today by increasing them, folks still wouldn’t be happy.
You literally still have unlimited Google photos on a Pixel 1. They keep their promises for sure
7 years updates plus 2 battery swaps will take a flagship phone right to the edge of how long you’d want to use it anyway.
I think, 7 years would be amazing, but also good enough. Or to put it differently, after 7 years you get into heavy diminishing returns, since almost all users will be moving on/have severely broken their phone before that.
I’ve had most of my phones until they where 5-6 years old (I used to buy used, so I had older phones even though I didn’t have them for quite that long). After that time, they usually fall apart anyway. (Two of my phones developed frequent random reboots around that time, one wore through the cable connecting both halves of the slider, and one killed died when I tried replacing the battery and accidentally cut through the screen cable).
I think you hit the nail on the head with diminishing returns. I’m usually on a 5-6 year usage period too. I can understand the battery swap helping out but my last few phones have felt so sluggish after 4+ years so I start looking at new phones around year 5. I have a Pixel 7 now and I’m going to wait until end of support and then we’ll see what the offerings are then!
battery swap helps a lot with sluggish phones if a factory reset doesnt help, phones will supposedly throttle down to save battery when it starts getting bad
Start of an era for Android hopefully, especially with EU’s replaceable batteries law coming up. This is what OEMs should copy and not dumb shit done by Apple.
Wasnt the law that you could still build not replacable batteries because of water resistance?
I would love to have that option back again, since batteries are the main part why phones die right now.
Especially frustrating when Samsung already built phones with replaceable batteries AND water resistance. (The IP rating was lower though)
I hope there is a high rating limit, so they can’t just add “survises a droplet” as reason to not have a replaceable battery.
I guess there is also the problem with glas and how seemles everything should be. I remember that plastic cases were easy to open. Now we have to remove glue to get it open. I still dont understand with those glass backsides… i think nearly everyone uses a case.
I dont even care for that water resistance, as soon water gets in, there is no warranty for it. I think i saw that apple still puts some water sticker inside the phone, to see if water destroyed it.
Annnnnnnnnnnd Grapheneos…
No Google pay/Wallet so no.
Haven’t picked up my wallet and cards in ages and my driving license is also on my phone…so no… Love the idea tho of Graphene but without NFC payment in my area it is a no-go.
Awesome. This should get the gears going for other manufacturers like Samsung unless they want to be left in the dust by Google and fairphone both.
Samsung moving to four years of OS updates, and 5 years of security updates, is what pushed Google to adopt this new policy, as Google only offered 3 years of OS updates beforehand. So Samsung will probably try match Google again.
