[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.

[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.