Now this is nice. Hopefully 3rd party manufacturers can also provide a longer life span for the device.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro will be supported with seven years of “OS, security, and Feature Drop updates,” meaning buyers should be able to use them until 2030 before their software starts to become outdated.
It’s also a longer support period than what basically all of Google’s mainstream Android competitors are currently offering.
Google has the freedom to offer this longer support period thanks to using its own Tensor processor in the Pixel 8 series, which gives it more control over the hardware that’s gone into the phone compared to most of its Android competitors.
Apple, another manufacturer that also produces its own processors for its phones, offers similarly lengthy support periods.
But that assumes Google is still using the same annual release cadence for Android seven years from now, even before we get into its somewhat flaky history of ongoing support for other services and initiatives.
However, Fairphone has no plans to sell its fifth-generation device in the US and is also only committed to releasing five major Android OS updates.
The original article contains 473 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 63%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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
I’ll believe this in 7 years.
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
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.
Speak for yourself, that’s 7 years of GrapheneOS support! What phone do you use which you think is squeaky clean?
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.
Are they going to bundle chrome as a system update like apple bundles safari, just so they can say they have longer update cycle?
I’m not sure what you mean by that. Chrome is already a system app on most android devices. Be it pixel, Samsung, oneplus, etc.
System apps can be updated through Google Play (or any other channel) just fine. The version bundled with the system is just the baseline you can always revert to.
During a system update, the system apps only get updated if you don’t already have a newer or same version installed (no automatic downgrades).
I already know what a system app is and how updates work for them. I was questioning what he meant by having Chrome as a system app and claiming years of OS updates. His comment did not make any sense.
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.
