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Pixel 8 to have seven years of Android updates

www.theverge.com

Google says it’ll support Pixel 8 series with seven years of Android updates

Now this is nice. Hopefully 3rd party manufacturers can also provide a longer life span for the device.

Keep Your phone for Longer @lemmy.ca

Google says it’ll support Pixel 8 series with seven years of Android updates

TechNews @radiation.party

Pixel 8 to have seven years of Android updates

TechNews @radiation.party

Google says it’ll support Pixel 8 series with seven years of Android updates

101 comments
  • Meanwhile every other phone is on some old version of Android. The fuck is going on where every single Android phone can't just upgrade to the latest? Why does the phone maker have to be the one to support the OS? It's like relying on fucking Dell to update Windows on a Dell desktop, for example. Makes no goddamn sense. I should be able to download any new version of Android for my devices and install them.

    The only alternative is fucking crApple, and I won't go there. Fuck that pile of trash that you have to beg crApple to do any simple thing or have any simple customization. They control all their own phones and upgrade them, which solves that problem, but I want phones and tablets to work like a real computer. Is that so goddamn hard?

    • Corporatism my friend.

      The issue is Qualcomm who makes the majority of SoCs for phones. Qualcomm, if I am not mistaken controls the support of the phone because the phone uses their chip.

      Google is now pulling an Apple move and using their own Silicon (Samsung's Silicone) to bypass using Qualcomm.

    • I think what's happened is that unlike windows each manufacturer is given the source code to make their own unique version of Android that's incompatible with anything else typically. So once the lifetime of the product has expired as intended that development ceases.

      Google has tried to resolve this problem with their android security updates. But this isn't a perfect solution either.

      The manufacturer argues that it's not profitable to maintain legacy devices as you're incentivizing the customer to not buy the next model. So as consumers we are asking manufacturers to impact their own profits and capitalistic goals. This is unfortunately hopeless without a regulatory power to force that consumer interest.

    • The Android eco system is right fucking mess.

      Every manufacturer seems to have a unique settings screen that doesn't match anything else, so you search for how to do something on Android, and none of the settings you find exist on your phone.

      And don't even get me started on Android development...

  • 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!

  • As a guy with a OnePlus 7 Pro that has been waiting, I am waiting to see how reparable it is, and this might be the one I have been waiting for, I mean, I have been eying pixel since I got the OP7pro

101 comments