[officialjunk]

that's an important distinction. i don't have an android, but i get the sense that by "supported" we are talking about continuing to receive security updates. i am not sure my assumption is correct, though. do new samsung phones stop receiving security updates in 5 years?

[celsoazevedo]

You get at least 5 years of security updates with a new Samsung flagship[0]. During those 5 years, you'll use 4 major Android versions (there's a new one each year, like iOS). The last year of support is essentially security patches for the Android version released in the previous year.

On top of this, since Android 10 (2019), some security and feature updates come directly from Google (delivered via the app store) and continue after the brand stops supporting the device.

These security updates Apple, Samsung, etc, release years after the phone reaches end-of-life are a bit misleading. The update for the iPhone 5S fixed an exploit on Webkit, but everything else remains unpatched. Same with the update Samsung released for the Galaxy S7 (released before they had a 5 year support policy)... it fixed a GPS bug. That's it.

So while these updates are better than nothing, it's important to understand that the device is not up-to-date or secure.

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[0] The 50-100 dollars device sold in low income markets won't have the same level of long term support as $500+ devices. We can't compare them to Apple here as Apple doesn't compete in that market.

[GeekyBear]

The OG $499 iPhone SE from 2016 got six years of OS updates and is still supported with security updates today.

You really can't compare full OS updates AND security updates to years where you just got security updates.

[celsoazevedo]

I'll repeat myself: long term OS support is better on iPhones. With this said, we must look at what the "security updates" are fixing.

Above you mentioned that the 5S received a security update in August. According to the changelog, all they fixed was an exploit on Webkit (essentially the browser). They didn't even update Webkit/Safari to the latest version (it doesn't work on iOS 12).

Do you know how Android would handle that security update? A simple app update via the Play Store, no restart required. Someone running Android 7, which was released 2 years before iOS 12, is using the latest version of Webview/Chrome (108)... in this regard, Android is actually better than iOS.

There's a big difference between iOS and Android here. On iOS, things like Safari, Photos, Camera, Mail, etc, are part of the system and fixes/new features are presented as part of an updated OS. On Android these things are updated individually via the store and, if applying the same thinking as Apple, receive many "major updates" and many "security updates" every year.

Another point to consider when comparing updates is that since Android 10 (2019) different parts of the system get updates directly from Google ( see: https://blog.esper.io/what-is-project-mainline/ ). A security update for WiFi/Bluetooth, for example, may not need a system update from the OEM.

Android's fragmentation problem forced Google to come up with other ways to update Android. Even for features, many (eg: the alternative to airdrop, a feature to detect/warn about earthquakes, covid app support, etc) are backported to outdated devices without Samsung, etc, releasing system updates.

I don't deny that Android is messier behind the scenes than iOS or am even saying that you should buy an Android device... but it's not as bad as you seem to think.