Article refrains from drawing conclusions, instead presenting the data. Android is doing better at moving users to newer versions, but the overwhelming majority of users don’t have the current Android OS version nor the previous version, combined.
I’m still on android 12 (galaxy S10 from 2019). Why replace an OLED premium phone that’s still lasting me all day with its battery with 6+ hours screen time and no scratches? And I don’t even use battery protection options. Only a few months ago I had to enable battery saving mode, which I didn’t use before at all.
If your phone has stopped getting security updates, then that is a big issue. Even if the phone is working fine. People are using their phones for banking, paying stuff, email, saving personal photos, etc. You dont want people hacking into your phone and an unpatched phone is an insecure phone.
Which is why samsung/google(and apple before them), have started offering 7 years of OS support. Modern phone hardware, especially flagship tier one, can last for a long time. Other than the battery degrading, the rest of the phone is still powerful enough for everything.
Hey you guys are not wrong. I just can’t convince myself to buy a new 800 bucks phone for no real reason other than security updates. My ISP phone contract is just 5 bucks a month.
Buy a cheaper phone.
There are loads of good cheaper new phones.
You can also get great used deals if you want.
I’ve never read of anyone having their phone hacked, I reckon it’s just an excuse to frighten you into buying a new phone.
Think about it. The people most likely to have an old, unpatched phone are the ones least likely to have anything in their bank accounts lol 😂
Well if you haven’t heard of it then it surely hasn’t happened and is no threat at all!
Unfortunately it’s not the kind of thing you can Google, because you’ll just get SEO results so I’m still Nun the Wiser
Just use a custom rom.
There is no reason. Android 12 is not that different from 15 IMHO because the number and depth of the changes has dropped off significantly in resent years. Android is a mature OS that does what most users want it to do.
As time goes on you’ll be exposed to more and more security vulnerabilities with no patches.
Nothing wrong with running an old phone but you should unlock it and put Lineage OS on or similar.
Yea fun thing about Samsung, they fucking hate you, they fucking hate me, their customers and anyone trying to get near their bootloader.
-Sent from Galaxy S23U
They should only be able to choose one of “lock device down against any low level changes” and “stop supporting device”. If they want to end support (which was frankly not so great in the first place), they should be forced to open up the device.
It should come with an unlocked boot loader and you should have to pay extra to keep it locked.
Verizon too
Funny thing about that…I have Verizon and the S23U. Nothing I can do but pay
Then my banking app would stop working, it doesn’t work on rooted phones.
This is tricky. Luckily mine works on custom ROMs so I’ve not had to fool safetynet for a while.
Does it still trip if you install a custom ROM and relock the bootloader, without rooting? I know there used to be packages to hide you had root and keep safetynet
Unfortunately it still trips, because even though it’s a locked bootloader, it’s not a ROM that’s signed by Google, and therefore does not pass SafetyNet, unless you use things like Magisk Hide, Zygisk Next with Shamiko, and stuff like that, but for that you’d almost certainly need to root and unlock the bootloader again. It’s a cat and mouse game.
If you don’t install any random apks and are not of any big business or banking manager or defence. Then you are ok. Nobody wants to hack you.
Tell Nokia to release android 13 or 14 for my device and I’ll gladly run it.
Yeah, unlike Windows this isn’t a user choice. It comes down to manufacturer support. I don’t know what you do to make this better, especially in the context of newer Android updates being lighter on major user-facing features.
I’m also unclear on the exact technical details but there’s probably a reason that lineageos and the other free androids out there are not easily installable but have to be customised to each device.
I’m pretty sure that reason is mostly manufacturers being dicks about this. So it could probably be fixed by mandating some kind of interoperability. OTOH the governments are probably happy that not more people are using degoogled devices
Whose mandate? Are you going to make a law saying you can’t customize Google’s base Android?
It’s an open source OS, manufacturers offer crappy support because they want customizations and proprietary software but don’t want to have to spend a bunch of engineering time to keep pace with Google’s reference spec. Samsung does, but that’s because they’re the literal largest phone manufacturer on the planet.
But Google can’t be out there saying you don’t get to use Android code if you don’t offer timely support for a decade. There’s a reason years of security updates are now a declared selling point, the only force to drive it is market pressure. At most you could regulate that you HAVE to support swapping OSs on phones, but you can’t just target that at Android and not Apple, and Apple would buy themselves a nuke to fight against that one.
I read it as a law that the bootloader has to be unlockable so that the phone can be serviced by the end user past the manufacturers end of support
What Android version did your phone come with? I have a Nokia G20 that I use as a spare phone. It shipped with Android 11 and updated till 13.
I believe it shipped with 10 and I’m currently sitting on 12. Last security updates are from December 2023 so I’ll probably have to switch sooner than later…
It’s a Nokia 5.4
Edit: to be fair that’s not too bad compared to other android vendors. It’s actually pretty good. But being the cleanest pig in the mudpit isn’t really the goal I want to achieve. I’d rather be actually clean.
HMD is now retiring Nokia branding for its own series of smartphones. They are launching the Crest lineup which, while in the same price range as the 5.4 or G20, doesn’t offer any claimed Android upgrades.
The worst OEM I encountered was a company called Techno. Fantastic hardware for the price, but they delivered not a single Android upgrade, only security updates. Ironically, they even make foldables which are obviously much more expensive. I won’t be surprised though if even they received Aryabhatta’s number of upgrades.
Techno makes smartphones which have good hardware specs, marred by bad software support. For the equivalent Samsung or Nothing phone you would be paying a higher price.
I won’t be surprised though if even they received Aryabhatta’s number of upgrades.
Lol, I had to google just to make sure it meant zero.
Well I guess it’s time to go Fairphone then. It’s way more expensive than I’d like but honestly I’m so done replacing my phone because of software issues and not because the hardware wasn’t serviceable anymore
I was more intrigued with their earbuds, called Fairbuds. It has user replaceable batteries for both individual buds and the case. While people may ultimately get one or the other reason to upgrade their phone ultimately, most folks just chuck out their wireless earphones because the charging capacity has been seriously reduced.
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For what it’s worth, Sony Xperia phones have a microsd card slot and headphone jack, and I just replaced the battery in my xperia 1 III about a month ago. Best phone ever.
P.S. Sony’s commitment to OS and security updates still sucks though. I think on the new 1 VI it’s three OS upgrades and 4 years security updates. Sony always has to find a way to ruin good hardware.
Okay, can these percentages be aligned to the number of Android devices in active use that support the OS?
Because I would hazard a guess that some 70% of people do not have an android phone that even supports updating to the new OS.
I think that’s the point of what these statistics mean. This is an indictment on manufacturers not pushing the latest OS updates more than people not accepting the latest OS updates when they’re available.
Just wait until they find out about windows 10
