I'd like to give kudos to Apple for including the iPhone 5S in this security update, which was released on September 20, 2013, over 7 years ago! Supporting a product for even 3 years is rare in the smartphone world.
Wouldn't last official sale date be a better indicator of true device support? For example if someone bought it in an Apple store on the last day available, how long period would they have received updates for?
Comparatively, no. Android phones generally get a maximum of 3 years of security updates from launch, not from last device sale date. So, within mobile phones, it's more informative to compare it to their competition. It shows you just how much better Apple is at mobile device support compared to everyone else.
Apple uses this metric as well[1]. If something hasn't been sold by Apple for 5 years (but less than 7 years), it's considered vintage and you can still get hardware service and certain critical software fixes, though not necessarily any new features.
The support for MacBooks is actually great. Certain Late 2013 and Mid 2014 Retina MacBook Pros, while considered vintage, will be receiving the Big Sur update[2].
No, because devices can be and sometimes are sold with software that is already out of date. The better indicator is how long software support is provided for a device from beginning to end.
Well, let's not get crazy. It's fine (I'm using it currently because my Samsung S9 died) but it's definitely no perfect phone. It doesn't even have water resistance and the screen to body ratio is pretty bad, IMO.
Only upside is the thing is built in such a way that it has barely taken any damage from the years of abuse I put it through.
I'm likely getting an iPhone 12 Pro Max very soon and will continue to only use the iPhone 5S I've had since 2013 as a backup.
How do you still have one that's running OK? My Apple products almost always "die" after a few years. I had the 5S but one day it crashed and would not turn back on no matter what I did. The iPhone I had before that did the same thing.
My 8 (or 10?) year old AppleTV just got an update today. I was excited because the YouTube app pause function stopped working after the previous update a couple of weeks ago. Alas the problem remains.
Since this is a security update I think it’s more about support of an OS which is only 2 yrs old than the class of device as that class was supported with the initial iOS 12 release.
This is what I try to explain when it comes to "why are you paying so much for Apple". Because when you buy a cheap Android phone from Xuoiamiaeoi or whatever, you get some custom crippled OS in god knows what ways in close to 0 long-term support from them.
Y-bar|5 years ago
For example in mid 2017 it was still officially sold by Apple in India (source: https://www.iphonehacks.com/2017/05/apple-iphone-5s-iphone-s...).
JohnTHaller|5 years ago
gruez|5 years ago
well in that case many cheap android phones/tablets would have negative support periods, considering they don't release any updates at all.
diebeforei485|5 years ago
The support for MacBooks is actually great. Certain Late 2013 and Mid 2014 Retina MacBook Pros, while considered vintage, will be receiving the Big Sur update[2].
1. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624 2. https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur-preview/ (at the bottom of the page)
swinglock|5 years ago
jtbayly|5 years ago
als0|5 years ago
bradlys|5 years ago
Only upside is the thing is built in such a way that it has barely taken any damage from the years of abuse I put it through.
I'm likely getting an iPhone 12 Pro Max very soon and will continue to only use the iPhone 5S I've had since 2013 as a backup.
Tepix|5 years ago
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PopsiclePete|5 years ago