[magila]

Not really surprising given the device's age, but still disappointing given the presumably rather large number of Nexus 5 still in use.

The bigger story may be the inability to come up with a compelling reason for N5 users to upgrade, other than getting the latest OS revision. The N5's compactness in particular makes the 5X (and the impending successor, codenamed "Sailfish") a tough sell.

[wlesieutre]

> Not really surprising given the device's age

Nexus 5 released late 2013, last major OS update in late 2015. Compare to the iPhone 4S, which came out late 2011 and still got iOS 9 (4 years later).

Really not buying the "two years is plenty of updates" excuse, especially from the Nexus line.

[datguacdoh]

Not entirely fair comparison since the 4S didn't get every feature; it was a paired down version. AFAIK, Google doesn't cherrypick features for older hardware - it's all our nothing. Also, the 4S ran terribly on ios9, to the point that two of my friends with 4S's just gave in and bought new iphones instead.

[wlesieutre]

I ran it myself as a secondary device for phone app testing and didn't have that problem. Maybe as a daily driver I would have had more trouble?

In my experience, the bigger issue was designers assuming everyone has the taller iPhone 5 screen size (or worse, iPhone 6) and burning up 95% of the screen with keyboard + giant fixed header + fixed footer. Some apps would give you space for maybe two lines of content in between all that.

More of a complaint with 3rd party devs on that though.

[r00fus]

So - what would you prefer, a slower but secure OS on an older phone, or no updates at all?

Also the "cherrypick" comment is a bit of a dodge - Google already does security patches for older releases (3 years vs. 2).

It would arguably be just as easy to secure one codebase and pare features down for performance.

[threeseed]

Comments like this are ridiculous. It wasn't a pared down operating system by any definition. Features just weren't available if you didn't have the requisite hardware.

[datguacdoh]

Not everything was hardware related, or at least not obviously hardware related. My friends both really wanted public transit directions in maps and airdrop but neither feature shipped on the 4S. I also seem to remember that predictive Siri (Google Now-ish competitor, don't remember what they called that) didn't make it to the 4S.

So I do commend apple for getting updates to that device for 4 years, but at least in their experience, it made the phone worse and didn't bring all the features that they wanted.

[mbell]

> My friends both really wanted public transit directions in maps and airdrop but neither feature shipped on the 4S. I also seem to remember that predictive Siri (Google Now-ish competitor, don't remember what they called that) didn't make it to the 4S.

As I recall all those features were built only for 64bit CPUs which the 4s/mini didn't have.

[datguacdoh]

Oh I never heard that before, interesting and thanks. Well, at least I did say it wasn't "obviously hardware" ;)

[awill]

That's mostly true, but not entirely. When Google released OpenGL 3.0 and 3.1, older Nexus devices couldn't get that.

[megablast]

> Google doesn't cherrypick features for older hardware - it's all our nothing.

well they should.

[fpgeek]

You're getting more than two years of updates. There's another year of security updates, plus at least two years (probably more given historical trends) of system-level app updates ( Google Play Services, Chrome, WebView, Play Store, ...) that only come via OS updates on iOS. Not to mention Google providing compatibility libraries so that third-party apps are significantly less likely to leave you behind.

[icebraining]

Yeah, but the 4S cost $650+ while the Nexus 5 cost $350+.

[notatoad]

>Really not buying the "two years is plenty of updates" excuse, especially from the Nexus line.

I'm not impressed with two years of updates either, but I don't think people have any right to complain when that's exactly what they were promised when they bought their phones.

If people are disappointed because they chose to believe, against all evidence, that Google would exceed the promised two years of updates, that's nobody's problem but their own.

[JohnTHaller]

The Nexus 5 was about 1/2 the price of the equivalent iPhone, so the iPhone should be support quite a lot longer. A Nexus 5 purchased in 2013 ($349 for 16GB) plus a Nexus 5x purchased today ($299 for 16GB at BestBuy right now) is the same total cost as the purchase price of an iPhone 5s ($649 for 16GB when the Nexus 5 launched).

[Grazester]

When you make your own chipset and dont rely on third party binary updates to enable new features also helps the iphone.

[Grazester]

hmmm http://www.androidauthority.com/android-7-0-snapdragon-800-8...

[jonesetc]

It'll be a bummer not using latest android for the first time in many years (HTC G2 -> Nexus 4 -> Nexus 5), but I really can't imagine anything compelling me to pay hundreds of dollars for a new phone for a couple more years. The Nexus 5 has been practically the perfect phone for me.

[wastedhours]

I'd agree - however after nearly 3 years the speakers on my N5 are nigh on unusable (phonecalls are only really possible with a headset or loudspeaker), the power cable refuses to stay put and tries to make a break for it every 5 minutes, and there's still an annoying bug where the screen is flaky/unresponsive when it is finally plugged in. Not sad about missing out on Nougat at the moment, but the sheer number of N5s I see in the wild it's annoying that a popular phone is being left behind.

[gpderetta]

Same problem, except that my loudspeaker is also busted. Headphones only right now.

The damage is possibly my fault as I opened the phone to change the battery (which died in two years), but the lack of an user accessible battery and it's poor battery life are a problem.

[desas]

I have the exact same issues with my N5. I think I'll have to get myself a headset rather than shouting down the speaker phone.

I'll feel sad not to be on the leading edge for the first time in years (had Nexus 4 before)

[devicenull]

Do you have the fun issues where the power button sticks, resulting in an endless boot loop? I've resorted to percussive maintenance, which oddly fixes the problem for months at a time.

[thaumasiotes]

I had that issue. When I tried whacking the phone to unstick the power button, it instead entered a state where it can't mount its internal storage and just stays in the (same) booting animation indefinitely because it can't boot. I don't view this as an improvement.

[criley2]

It's extremely unlikely that the N5 won't get Android 7 through the dedicated efforts of some XDA folks.

If you want to save a couple hundred dollars, then maybe it's time to learn about a custom recovery and loading the 7.0 rom yourself!

I don't think the factory images are even out yet, so it'll take a bit for them to get a nice stable AOSP+gapps package for you

[simcop2387]

That's my plan for 7 on my 5. I was hoping CopperheadOS would support it but it looks like they're dropping the 5 too (based on quick google search).

[ThatPlayer]

The biggest feature I'm looking for that the newer Nexuses don't have over my N5/N7 is Qi wireless charging. My Nexus 7's USB port has been broken for over a year now, and I've been using a wireless charger all this time. It just seems like a good idea to reduce the wear and tear on the USB ports if I want to continue using the phone for years.

[lewisl9029]

This is the same reason why I haven't bothered to upgrade yet also.

Wireless charging is the killer feature for wireless devices in my opinion. I can't wait for the day when every one of my devices and wireless peripherals supports wireless charging, so I can just lay them down on a large charging pad when I'm not using them and never have to worry about not having a full battery when I pick it up for use, or have to fumble with plugging wire into every single device.

[blisterpeanuts]

Plus there are charging tables in some Starbucks; it's so handy to just lay your device on the table and top it off. Why did they take that feature away? :(

There's a way to add wireless charging to your 5X if you're handy with a soldering iron, though.

https://youtu.be/WimH8g-H2lE

[jevinskie]

That is a really cool and simple hack. Take a wireless charging coil + support circuitry and simply tap that into the USB +5V and ground? It all sounds too easy!

[thaumasiotes]

> Not really surprising given the device's age, but still disappointing given the presumably rather large number of Nexus 5 still in use.

My Nexus 5 was in use up until a couple of weeks ago. Then it entered a state where, when plugged in, it rebooted in an eternal loop and, when not plugged in, it shut off. Judging by the internet, this is a common problem for them.

I followed the advice I found in multiple places of trying to dislodge the Nexus 5's stuck power button by whacking it against a soft object. That worked -- it will now try to boot, fail to mount the hard drive, and just keep displaying the booting animation forever. It can boot into the bootloader and recovery mode, and I can flash a new recovery image in fastboot, or at least I can issue the command and see a report of success, but on reboot I just get the old recovery mode.

So... I guess I do have a compelling reason to upgrade, although the N5 was satisfactory in every other way. My Nexus 4 still works fine, but it's gotten much puffier than it should be, and apparently it's impossible to get a new battery for it.

:(

[viraptor]

If you have another device to wait a month with, at least you can upgrade to the 2016 line instead of 5x/6p. Gives you another 3 years, not 2.

[robocat]

I think it is 2 years for major updates (from release), 3 years for security updates (from release), or 18 months for security updates from end of life.

Unless you are unlucky enough to get a device that they can't update due to drivers (Texas Instruments CPU).

[swiley]

That's a pretty crappy excuse, I've had laptops that last for 7 years just fine running Linux.

[khedoros]

Let's get closer to comparing apples to apples. Every one of my laptops has lost manufacturer support 1-3 years after I got them...but even my 13 year old laptop will run a current Linux build.

Every one of my phones has lost manufacturer support 1-3 years after I got them...but my 5 year old Galaxy Nexus still has Cyanogenmod builds being released for it (based on Marshmallow).

With the timelines of when these different markets began, I think that's a fair comparison. Manufacturers want to maintain as few models as possible, but the community often does the work to provide extended support time.

[CydeWeys]

Laptops aren't mobile phones though. Phones have seen much, much more change in the past seven years than laptops have.

[swiley]

Not in the past couple years though, there is really nothing significantly different in the hardware of a Samsung Galaxy s3 and a Nexus 6. Also, one of those laptops was manufactured in the late 90s.

[hackbinary]

Well, not anymore. Laptops, and computers had huge change from the 70's to the early 2000's.

We're going through the same technology change with mobiles now, but that even seems to be tapering off now.

[Rapzid]

This is disappointing to me too. The 5X seems just a tad too large on top of me not needing it as my 5 is still going strong after ~3 years..