As an IPhone holder I’m happy Google is doing this to force the market to support devices for longer. Apple will be pushed to go further than 6-7 years of software support.
Yeah. Pixel 8 and 9 series have 7 years by spec. I think Samsung matched it with their latest Galaxy S series. It’s one of those rare and fleeting moments when competition works to our benefit.
Samsung’s update policy for their lower end models is pretty atrocious. While on paper they offer updates for a couple of years, it you look more closely, you’ll notice that the update intervals get larger and larger as time goes on. You might not get important updates for half a year. Sure, still better than not updates at all, but a pretty awful policy for security updates.
Makes sense. I suspect they’re selling more of those overall so they like replacing them more often. The only reason they’re providing longer support for the S-series is because someone else does too. They have made their own SoC (Exynos) for more than a decade and there wasn’t anyone stopping them supporting the models with that SoC for longer. They didn’t.
It’s one of those rare and fleeting moments when competition works to our benefit.
More competition is always better for the consumer.
Fairphone have been offering 5 years of support for years… and ethically sourced materials, replacable parts (inc. nokia style batteries that you can replace)
Not to mention acceptance of alternative OS installations
Fairphone is actually worse than Google when it comes to updates. Even their flagship phone is still on Android 13. Even the Pixel 6 runs Android 15 at this point and with this news it is guaranteed to get at least Android 17. Google has always been offering 5 years of support for the Pixel 6 and 7 series. What they didn’t promise until this announcement was additional feature/OS upgrades, but when it comes to that they were already ahead of Fairphone.
When it comes to alternative OSes, Google actually makes it very easy to install them. That’s one reason why GrapheneOS and the likes chose Pixel phones as their primarily supported phones.
IMHO, security updates are more important than OS updates, and Fairphone is good in that regard. I’d be hard-pressed to even name a killer feature from the last few versions of Android (or iOS, for that matter).
Absolutely, security updates are much more important than feature updates. Upgrading to newer Android versions is mostly useful to have access to newer Android APIs (apps eventually will require newer versions, although that usually takes quite a while). Another benefit of newer Android versions might be added security features.
People also could get extended support via CalyxOS and GrapheneOS on the Pixel Models.
And wireless charging, the reason i own a pixel not an fairphone. Maybe next it will be a shiftphone, but thats hopefully far in the future.
For the Pixel 6 and 7 series Google has promised 5 years of security updates right from the beginning. What’s new here is that they now also offer feature and OS upgrades for that same time period. Certainly nice to have, but not essential.
As a pixel 6a user I’m excited I’ll get a few more years of support and use out of this phone.
Sweet. This will likely mean extended GrapheneOS support too.
Open source…forever software updates until nobody cares to update the bloody thing.
You would like postmarket os as it is foss and software support is 10 years atleast.
Android is as closed as an open-source project can get.
If only the fucking phone would work that long.
My Pixel 6 Pro was replaced twice within the two year warranty. Always for display errors(Display crapped out partially or has sudden “green flashes” when in maximum low light setting). Each time was a customer service nightmare and took ages. The current arrived damaged (they send you refurbished phones which in theory would be okay if they would actually be refurbished - last one was still reeking of smoke) and the FP did not work, additional loading only works when the cable is pushed in to the maximum by hand. When contacted they refuse further customer service claiming their service period ended (it did not, legally they are obligated according to the laws here), but their customer service agents do not give a shit. “It’s written here” and “then sue us, lol!” are quotes.
The problems with the screen are known and there are hundreds of posts about it online. Each listing similar troubles.
I really loved the phone when it worked. Great camera, perfect size for me, clean OS, a lot of bang for the buck. But shit like that made me get a Samsung.
I’m sorry you dealt with all that. My anecdote is that my 6 Pro has worked flawlessly since day one and I’m not kind to it.
I replaced my OS on day 1 so it’s not the same but I’ve also had no issues aside from a brief power draining issue that got patched shortly after.
still happily using a pixel 4a, your mileage may vary
The 4a was beast tbh. Loved that one.
Good thing my pixel 6 battery is marshmallow now and I was forced to buy a new phone 2 weeks ago…
If only they would send me a free volume button since their factory one broke…
I bought the Pixel 7 Pro and omg it was hot garbage, they had an unresolved bug open for like 3 months that caused scrolling to basically work only sometimes. It was impossible to use I had to return it within a week. Worse phone buy I’ve had in ~15 years.
