Google’s seven-year Pixel update promise is historic — or meaningless (The Verge)
Google’s seven-year Pixel update promise is historic — or meaningless (The Verge)
Google picks who gets features.
- Google has promised seven years of OS upgrades, security updates, and feature drops for its new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro.
- Despite the same hardware, Pixel 8 is missing features exclusive to Pixel 8 Pro, raising questions about Google's long-term commitment to parity among devices.
- Google spokesperson Matthew Flegal stated that not all updates will be available for every phone, without specifying the limitations.
- One feature exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro, Video Boost, is cloud-based, indicating that the exclusivity is economically motivated, not hardware-limited.
- Author questions the true value of Google's seven-year promise and argues that Android OS versions are becoming less significant as updates occur independently.
Btw, Fairphone promises 8 years, aims for 8-10 years of support (software and hardware (repair parts)) for their new Fairphone 5.
Fairphone is going to be my next phone although likely to be second hand, as all the phones I have used to date. Recycle, recycle and recycle is my motto.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Google spokesperson Matthew Flegal confirms to The Verge that both the Recorder Summaries and upgraded Magic Eraser are exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro.
The Pro does have 12GB of RAM vs. 8GB on the non-Pro, but it’s hard to imagine that being the blocker on something as simple as camera controls — or, for that matter, features that don’t even run on your device but rather in the cloud.
Speaking of that, Google did tell Android Authority why one specific feature is exclusive to Pixel 8 Pro: “the cost of the cloud infrastructure required to run Video Boost processing” is behind the decision to gate it behind the pricier phone for now.
I do have to give Google credit for bringing its auto-transcribing Recorder app and time-lapse camera mode to non-new Pixels in 2019, but that trend hasn’t continued as comprehensively in recent years.
By the way: the reason I’m spending so much time talking about Pixel Feature Drops instead of Android OS versions is because that is the promise that matters.
Just check out Google’s own video of Android 14’s “top 14 features,” which include such minor things as AI wallpaper and a monochrome theme.
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