Only 3 years of updates for such an expensive phone?
I'm really glad i got the Fairphone 5 instead.
this post was submitted on 08 Nov 2023
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Yeah this is disheartening. Depending on where you live this comes out to ~€600 per year of up-to-date phone. For many that'll be acceptable, but it's ridiculous to think about, considering my Fairphone 4, if I use it just to the end of full support coverage, will cost me ~€100 a year. And that is already high IMO.
Thats 50€ a month, its ridiculous and a punch on the mouth for those who supported the product in such an early stage.
As a comparison, I am using an S20FE 5G which I got for 300€ two years ago. Thats 12,50 per month and it still gets updates. Sure thats no high end phone, but I dont miss anything, fast OLED screen, 500GB storage through sd card, blazing fast, good camera.
It's shameful for Samsung, but I doubt many of the owners are hugely inconvenienced by this, it was always a toy for early adopters with disposable income.
How long did you expect a total flop to keep getting updates?
I'm really glad i got the Fairphone 5 instead.
I highly doubt you made the call between a Fold that came out 4 yrs ago vs a totally different in every way phone that literally just came out.
How little? They do 4 years of OS and 5 years of security updates on the newest phones. That's pretty fair to me.
No, you're right, i made an Error there. I was looking at the new Fold and almost bought the new Flip as a small android phone instead. But still, seeing how little updates Samsung Flagships get, i am very happy.
Not that you didn't make the right call, but many of the longer software update "confirmations" (obviously they're only worth something if they commit to that) happened around that time. Almost any android phone didn't have more than a couple years of support, until very recently. Naturally, no brand is going to backtrack that far, especially for a completely new phone concept that they knew was going to have issues.
Something can be said about that on its own, but first gen devices always carry first gen issues, and the news (both people and articles) of the time was very vocal about such. Personally I'm on the side of providing long software support, but not extending to hardware (in niche cases).
Fair enough
Sept 2019 is 4 years ago
No? 2019 was last year.
What are you talking about? 2019 is 3 years from now.
It said so on the tin. Sometimes this news make it sound like someone suddenly decided to fuck customers over, but this was the plan all along. Newer, more robust versions and designs are getting more time. Samsung is one of the few Android vendors who actually follow through with their support promises. Even if software updates and OS security updates stop, the phone software itself will continue to receive security updates to the user shell modules like Google Play services for another 6 years. OneUI perhaps for half of that time. The phone will likely continue to work just fine for all that while. It always sucks when there are articles that frame “company did today what they said they were gonna do today, 4 years ago!?” like some sort of gotcha. If you didn't want in on the deal, that's on you from 4 years ago. Samsung did exactly what they said they were gonna do with their experimental prototype toy. They have worked out the kinks and newer phones get longer support times now they're established products.
I'm on an iphone 11, and it still gets updates.
That phone will also get updates. There's a difference between updates by Samsung and updates of Google Play services delivered through Play Store which include the web renderer.
Doesn’t the article state specifically that it won’t? The iPhone 11 is like to get at least another two years of major OS upgrades, and further security updates after that.
It’s nice that some Android manufacturers have promised to provide updates for their phones for a longer period, but it’s something iPhone users have been expecting for years already.
The article doesn't mention Play Services at all. Off the top of my head I think Play Services get updates for around 10 years but I would need to check to be sure.
Yep, that's a clickbait title. People forgot or don't know that Samsung is just a part of long-term security updates. If you run on Android 11+, Google will also involved with your phone security updates as they are the one making the modular system updates that are separate from OEMs.
Also "will no longer get updates" is totally wrong, that's minimum guaranteed updates, not maximum updates that actually happen with your phone if you ever own a phone for really long duration, especially with Android 11+.
You can check most Android phones these days uses a thing called "Google Play system update". As your phone gets higher Android version if possible, the more modules can be updated. And with Galaxy Fold running Android 12, you can update as deep as critical components like ART and many others without Samsung ever involved. https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2023/08/latest-artwork-on-hundreds-of-millions-of-devices.html
Blame Google for making sh*t OS that is hard to update (they fixed that a bit since A10+), not really Samsung's fault.
Google could easily mandate that their OEMs have to conform to a hardware standard that would enable it to install generic Android versions (be it ARM ServerReady or a spec more suited to mobile devices). Updating many components through Play Store is good for many things but it's indeed not perfect either.
But no security updates for the OS though which often means you kinda should think about to stop using it for more than an alarm clock, podcasts and spotify.
Most crucial things are in Play Services anyway. I'm not saying that it's no issue at all but it's also far from as bad as some make it out to be.
No, this is pretty shit.
Play Services will still update the web renderer and such. Those are the most crucial updates. It's not Armageddon when the OEM stops updating their Android base.
Not so quick, you can't say with any logic that OS and security updates aren't FAR more important than a web renderer. Exploits are regularly found that go back multiple OS versions all the time. Not getting an OS update isn't the end of the world, but when a phone no longer gets security patches, time to replace it.
The web is usually the prime attack vector, therefore updates to the web renderer are the most important. Many other features are in Play Services as well.
That's literally like saying because people typically break into houses from the back door, that you don't need to keep the front locked. People self exploit themselves through many avenues, web is only one, compromised apps that act as Trojans, email attachments, fake links to verify/confirm accts, responding to some BS SMS that has them go to accts online. The "most important" would be a patched OS that would resist the attack regardless of entry point.
Are you in the US? How does it work when imported?
Are you using Google services? Do you put them in a different profile? Did other ROMs find a workaround over the new implementation of work profiles that Android 14 is pushing?
I know they're doing all that they promised but I feel so bad for the owners since the next version of Android will have some nice improvements for foldable phones.
Save the article and use it for the pixel 8 in 3 years.
Google has kept every Pixel update promise so far. Why would you assume the 8 wouldn't get the updates they promised?
They quite literally have a perfect Pixel track record.
Samsung is the company that promises updates and then releases them on carrier locked phones and for some random reason not the unlocked variants, and then claim they fulfilled their promise lmao