[torgian]

I don’t get the point of this article other than “buy cheap phones”.

I’ve bought cheap phones before. My first was a Samsung galaxy. I think it cost about 400usd at the time. Can’t remember. It was ok.

Lasted me for about 2 years before I got an htc phone for about 200usd. The Samsung shattered, so I needed a new one. Decided to go cheap because, why spend the money on glass?

Turns out that HTC is as sooooo bad. Could barely type a sentence. Reception was bad, and it was slow just to use Line app.

Ended up getting a iPhone 6s.

I’m typing this comment now on that very same 6s. My wife is using my iPhone 12 since hers broke.

Conclusion? Buy an expensive phone (within reason) and use it for five years. Or longer.

Too bad androids don’t receive security updates past two or three years.

[ris58h]

> Too bad androids don’t receive security updates past two or three years.

Both Google and Samsung promise 5 years of security updates for their phones.

[GeekyBear]

The original $399 2016 iPhone SE got six years of OS updates and just got another security update last month.

The original 2016 Pixel Phone's support was dropped at the end of 2019.

I would not be shocked to see Apple support this year's iPhone for a decade since the RAM was just bumped up again, and RAM has been the traditional sticking point for getting more OS updates.

[qball]

>Both Google and Samsung promise 5 years of security updates for their phones.

But Apple has, for the last 10 years, provided about 7 years of feature updates. Google and Samsung top out at 3 because their phones are designed to be replaced every 2-3 years with a new one when your contract expires.

Since manufacturers of Android devices have been behind the 8-ball for the past 10 years, it stands to reason that this is a logical choice- the best Android devices perform like a last-gen 200-dollar iPhone SE. So it's natural that that level of performance would only be supported for the same number of years regardless of it being new or used, and as such Android devices don't get support because they're just not fast enough to bother maintaining.

The iPhone SE is arguably the best you can do for a low-end phone and one of the better phones for minimizing TCO. Sure, you could just buy 3 Samsung phones for 180 bucks each (since those phones will, at this point in the cycle, receive one new Android version), but they're also all bargain basement junk whereas the SE actually has hardware strong enough to support those upgrades and even with the obligatory battery replacement will still come out breaking even here (at $550).

I'm sure Qualcomm will eventually (with its Nuvia purchase) have hardware that outperforms Apple's stuff, but their highest-end chips will never make it into the cheapest phones so it really doesn't matter all that much. Guess it's just a question of incentives- there's no reason Google couldn't update the Android driver model such that the drivers and the kernel was separate allowing them to be easily baked into newer Android versions but it's clearly just not a priority for them.

[realusername]

> Too bad androids don’t receive security updates past two or three years.

Depends if you include the community support or not here because nobody beats lineageos at this game.

[omeletdufromage]

I've been on a LOS since v18 on a Samsung device, and — barring a handful of inconveniences — I love it. (Most) things just work and I'm confident they will keep on working for a good while. Hardware will probably fail earlier than it losing software and update support.

That being said, I dread having to bump major versions on LOS, but I'm not sure if there's any getting around it. When I upgraded from v18 to v19, it was a massive chore to backup and restore what I had since the upgrade required a full flash, and that meant all data on my device is goong to be wiped. Now there's an outstanding upgrade to v20 available for my device, and the only reason I've been putting it off is the data wipe and restore tedium.

[hammyhavoc]

The point is that people will click it and be exposed to ads. It's The Verge.

Google Pixel gets 5 years of security updates, mate.

[mattl]

Anecdotal but my Pixel 1 got into a boot loop in my pocket draining my battery in about 20 minutes and I’ve never had an Android phone since.

[hammyhavoc]

Modern Pixel phones are made using Google's in-house Tensor chip. They used to just outsource the phones to popular manufacturers. A lot has changed. It's like trying to compare an IBM-manufactured ThinkPad with a modern-day Lenovo-manufactured one.

I also had logic board failure in a MacBook Pro and haven't had a MacBook Pro since, and I haven't had an iPhone since the battery became swollen in my last one. Go figure.

[mattl]

If I have a problem with my iPhone under warranty I can just walk into an Apple Store and speak to a person. The lack of similar options as a consumer with a phone by Google is a reason I don’t recommend anyone get one.

[hammyhavoc]

I can get replacements same-day'd.

Know what the Apple Store in Liverpool told me when I took my Mac Pro into the city center? Come back in two weeks. No parts.

Know what they told me when I came in asking to buy a maxed out top-of-the-line MacBook? You'll have to buy it online, we don't sell those in-store. Same issue with having them work on it; they just didn't have the parts in stock.

Know what they told me when I took my MacBook Pro in with logic board failure? That'll be £700, despite it being a problem with the NVIDIA GPU, prior to their replacement program becoming a thing. No stock either.

If it works for you, that's great, I'm not knocking functioning solutions to actual problems. I know what works for me, and that's not running a Mac in 2023 and instead same-daying replacement components and even doing the sensible thing of running a matched B-rig for anything mission critical, and keeping a spare phone for when the shit really does hit the fan for any reason whatsoever, ergo I'm never phoneless and never need to worry about going to a store during business hours or worrying if I can source a replacement same-day.

[mattl]

I have a feeling some of that may be different in the UK vs the US, but you can rarely buy anything but the base models here too.

[throwaway2056]

Thankfully you are in the USA... + have > 300 in your account when it falls on the floor. Others will get a robust Xiaomi or Moto

- it will survive falling on concrete

- or if lost buy a replacement for $100- $200

It is one thing keeping a $1500 phone for 5 years. (though I have never seem flagship lovers that kept it for 5 years. They are too obsessed with keynote every fall that they buy new every year...)

Others love buying newer when it breaks.

[mattl]

I’m using a 3 year old phone now. Even if I needed to buy a new iPhone today it would be the SE again.

[GeekyBear]

> Modern Pixel phones are made using Google's in-house Tensor chip.

By which you mean "rebranded Samsung Exynos"?

[hammyhavoc]

You are mistaken. https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/xbgg83/comment...

[GeekyBear]

Nope. it's just a semicustom Samsung design:

>In the very fundamentals of what an SoC is, the Google Tensor closely follows Samsung’s Exynos SoC series. Beyond the usual high-level blocks that people tend to talk about in an SoC, such as CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, and other main characteristics, there’s the foundational blocks of a chip: these are the fabric blocks and IP, the clock management architecture, power management architecture, and the design methodology of the implementing those pieces into actual silicon. While on paper, a Samsung Exynos, a MediaTek Dimensity or a HiSilicon Kirin, or even a Qualcomm Snapdragon (on the CPU side) might have similar designs in terms of specifications – with the same high-level IP such as Cortex CPU or Mali GPUs from Arm – the chips will still end up behaving and performing differently because of the underlying SoC architecture is very different.

In the case of the Tensor, this “chassis” builds upon the IP Samsung uses on their Exynos SoCs, utilizing the same clock management and power management architecture. Going further up in the IP hierarchy we find additional similarities among high-level IP blocks, such as memory controllers, fabric IP, PHY IP for all kinds of externally facing interfaces, and even the larger IP functional blocks such as ISP or media decoders/encoders. The fun thing is that these things are now publicly scrutinizeable, and can be compared 1:1 to other Exynos SoCs in terms of their structures.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/17032/tensor-soc-performance-...

[throwaway2056]

Seeing many of verge's articles to kinda force commoners to buy this is refreshing - cheap is good these days - for most people.

> HTC

That was a different time. poor cpu.

These days a "almost new or good" phone from amazon warehouse for $250 P6a is good for most people. Even a decent Moto G-series for $150 is good enough for whatsapp, fb, emailing, maps, uber. Common man can live with that speed.

> Conclusion? Buy an expensive phone (within reason) and use it for five years. Or longer.

Buying for class/show off, gaming or every day I photograph/video my life is different. Then you need expensive. Or if you are in sales/marketing. IMHO such people with expensive devices

- scratch it, break it

- They don't go to client with broken device

- No one that wants to have state of the art uses a phone with shattered edges.

- such people also buy new-tech to keep up with tech

- rich/prioritise money to phone (instead of shoe or etc). all OK.

It all depends on user profile.

[fy20]

I'm running a Xiaomi Mi 8, which in 2018 when I got it, was their flagship device. I paid $430 including taxes and shipping. The main criteria when I got the phone was it had an unlockable bootloader and third party ROMs.

I'm currently running Android 13 and get security updates every week. The battery is a bit weaker now, and the screen has a few scratches, but other than that, it's as good as when I got it. It doesn't feel slow or underpowered like old iPhones do (my wife has had every iPhone SE because of that).

[wink]

The problem with HTC is the multitude of models (or maybe it's a more recent thing). I've not had one for a while, but the Tattoo (in 2009, very early) was really good for the price and the Desire Z was downright fantastic. I have heard stories of other meh experiences as well though.

[CameronNemo]

Samsung and Google offer 5-6 years of security support for their recently released phones.