
Google ends major OS support for Nexus phones and Pixel tablet - Deinos
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/03/google-ends-major-os-support-for-the-nexus-phones-and-pixel-tablet/
======
zitterbewegung
The iPhone 5S is still supported by Apple and was released on Sept 10th 2013
[1] .

The last iPhone to be not supported by Apple was the iPhone 5 released on
September 21, 2012 and ended support on July 19th 2017 [2]. They supported it
for almost five years.

The Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, and Pixel C were released on September 29, 2015. [3]
[4]. Their software support ends today on March 7th which is slightly more
than two years.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5S](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5S)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_5)
[3]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Nexus)
[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_C](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_C)

EDIT: I made a mistake in my last statement that I corrected. Thank you child
comment :)

~~~
nunez
Yes, it is. It also runs like poop.

~~~
gaius
No, for the animated poop you need iPhone X

------
saurik
This is just pathetic. You buy a piece of hardware that could trivially keep
working for 5-8 years, and it becomes actively dangerous to use, not just for
the owner but to everyone else (think botnets), after 3 years because the
vendor stops giving security updates for its software? This should be illegal.

~~~
kllrnohj
> after 3 years because the vendor stops giving security updates for its
> software? This should be illegal.

 _Feature_ updates stopped, _security_ updates did not. The phones are still
receiving monthly security patches and will continue to do so. Google did not
stop those.

~~~
mjrpes
Security updates "are not guaranteed" after 3 years.

Source:
[https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705](https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705)

------
stefan_
The irony of stopping major OS support for older phones because you introduced
yet another layer of abstraction to make major OS support for older phones
easier.

~~~
ploxiln
Yup. And the sadness of being dependent on SoC vendor's kernels/drivers.
Basically only Apple is capable of fully supporting their phones, because no
one company does as much of their tech stack in-house as Apple. (Samsung is
close, but does not really understand software... and I say this stuff as a
long-time android-only user, and Samsung employee...)

------
azdle
Help me [https://postmarketos.org/](https://postmarketos.org/), you're my only
hope.

I don't really know what changed, but I used to be the guy who always wanted
the new phone (or <insert really any "device" here>), but ever since I got my
5X I just haven't wanted anything more hardware-wise. I really hope that some
of the long-life, open source, replacement OSs for phones take off.

~~~
luckydata
Oh man, the 5X was such a piece of junk at the end of its useful time as a
phone. I never really liked it, while the Pixel 2 I'm using now I can
definitely see myself using it for a bit longer.

~~~
floatboth
> end of its useful time as a phone

Huh? My 5X feels like new to me, absolutely love it. Running LineageOS (just
upgraded to 15.1 Oreo), never had any problems.

------
VyseofArcadia
There is a comment I remember from slashdot a million years ago after yet
another gmail design. I'm paraphrasing, but was something along the lines of,
when is Google going to stop redesigning things and just position all the UI
elements randomly every time you open gmail?

I'm starting to feel similarly about major Android release.

Just for example, why move the clock? Why? After almost a decade of looking at
the upper right, I'm going to have to hunt for it every time I need it.

~~~
stefan_
They knew it themselves, even. At one point a favorite pastime of the Android
team was counting how many clocks were displayed:

[https://youtu.be/rimXGaUdaLg?t=48m1s](https://youtu.be/rimXGaUdaLg?t=48m1s)

------
thisacctforreal
For comparison; the iPhone 5s from September 2013 is still receiving updates,
and still runs like a charm.

~~~
jakobegger
I think we also need to discuss how long all these phones were on sale. Sure,
if you bought a brand new iPhone in Sep 2013, you're still getting updates.

But if you bought the iPhone 5c (which was sold by Apple until August 2015),
you're out of luck -- it is no longer supported by iOS 11.

I don't know how long other companies sell their models, but Apple typically
sells every iPhone model for 3 years.

For customers it's not as important how long a model is supported after it was
released, but rather how long it is supported after you buy it!

~~~
shinratdr
This comparison requires context.

\-----------------

First, timelines:

Nexus 5X

Released: October 22nd, 2015

Discontinued: October 5th, 2016 - (12 months from release)

Mainstream Software Support Ended: December 5th, 2017 (13 months from
discontinuation, 25 months from release)

iPhone 5C

Released: September 20th, 2013

Discontinued: September 9th, 2015 (24 months from release)

Mainstream Software Support Ended: July 19th, 2017 (22 months from
discontinuation, 46 months from release)

\-----------------

Next, positioning:

iPhone 5c: Bottom of the lineup, released as a budget/$0 contract option in
comparison to the rest of the iPhone line.

Nexus 5X: Flagship of the Nexus line. You could argue the Nexus 6P was the
flagship, but it's irrelevant as it was also released, discontinued and exited
support on the same days. Point is, these were the top-of-the-line Nexus
phones at the time.

\-----------------

Here is how I see it:

Apple had a reduced support lifecycle for a bottom-of-the-line experimental
phone that they never repeated. They typically support a phone for 3-5 years,
this one was 2-4 years depending if you count from release or discontinuation
date. This was _still_ longer than the support life cycle for the flagship,
top of the line Nexus phones, the only Android phones with the reputation and
stated goal of offering extended software support. They managed to make it
just over 1-2 years.

I don't care how you slice it, that's embarrassing. Even the flagships can't
begin to _approach_ Apple's support timeline for their worst and most
neglected device. Throw in non-flagships, even from just the major
manufacturers, and it just gets depressing. There are phones being sold right
now that will never see an update after the customer purchases them. They've
exited support before the customer even unwraps them.

I think any way you look at it, Apple is the only company who can be trusted
to provide a reasonable support lifecycle, regardless of when you buy the
phone.

------
pan69
I'm still on my Nexus 5. There hasn't been any phone worth upgrading to, that
I'm aware of. If I knew that the Pixel would be so over the top expensive I
have upgraded to the 5X at the time it was released but I was hoping that
skipping a release would be worth it. I wouldn't mind a Pixel though, I'm just
not going to pay $1000+ (AUD) for a phone.

For me the Nexus 5 was the last phone that had a great form factor, good
enough features and was sold at a reasonable price.

~~~
0xcafecafe
You dodged a bullet with the 5x though with LG's notorious bootloop issue. I
bought two, one from amazon for myself and one from google store for my wife.
Both of them bootlooped, mine after 12 months and my wife's after 20 months.
LG took in my phone for repair and returned it back as is claiming "water
damaged" (although I didn't remember getting it wet). Google was gracious
enough sending a replacement for my wife's 5x, 8 months after the warranty
expired.

I'll be damned if I buy another LG product again in my life.

~~~
pan69
I had a bit of boot loop, sometimes it would restart itself for no apparent
reason. There was an issue with the on/off button. I took the whole phone
apart and cleaned it out with a big brush. It was full of pocket lint, dust,
etc. Even removed the on/off button (which is a fiddly little thing). It had a
bunch of gunk on it (probably from my hands, you know, the stuff you'll find
on your mouse after a while). Cleaned it out and put it back together. No
issues since.

------
craftyguy
This isn't surprising. Google has had their device EOL plans up and public for
many moons now:
[https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#nexus_...](https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/4457705?hl=en#nexus_devices)

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limeblack
My frustration is that you used to be able to buy a used Nexus phone from
craigslist, ebay or really anyone and know it was going to be ROMable. Now we
have 2 different Pixel phones. The Verizon models and Google models(which have
an unlocked bootloader). It has made the resell market an absolute pain. For
me the disappearance of the Nexus will be the disappearance of a guaranteed
flashable phone

------
foepys
I own a Nexus 5X and I'm very satisfied with it. Even the battery is holding
up after 2 years of daily usage and loading from <20% to ~90%. While it's sad
to see that I wont get Android 9, I'm happy with the Android updates I got for
my phone. It never got slower, rather quicker with every update. At least I
can count on Google giving me security updates once a month.

~~~
kss238
What do you use your 5X for though? I couldn't get more than 2 hours of video
streaming on mine in a single charge and it was less than 1 year old.

~~~
foepys
I regularly watch Netflix on mine and I can get about 3 hours with 90% charge
and then have some left over for other stuff.

Maybe it's because I only have about 20 non-Google apps installed, of which
are 3 web browsers, 2 are chat apps, 2 CardDAV and CalDAV apps, a better
calendar, and Spotify, Netflix, Twitch, and Amazon Video. All Google apps
except Maps, YouTube, Calendar, Messages, Camera, and Phone got deactivated.
If anything looks like it's using a resource hungry background service it
doesn't need, it simply gets uninstalled.

What I did from the beginning to keep the battery in a good shape was to never
load over night to 100%. I plug in my phone before showering and eating
breakfast in the morning and this loads it up to 90%. But I don't plan my day
around charging my phone, even when it sounds like it - when my phone needs
charging, I charge it.

One thing I also did, that might impact battery performance: I deactivated
animations entirely. They are unnecessary and keep me waiting for things I
could do a lot faster. As a side-effect some loading spinners aren't animated
anymore and show a static circle shaped arrow but that's okay for me.

------
bsimpson
Title is misleading - should say "Google ends major OS support for Nexus 5x,
6p, and Pixel C"

~~~
melling
The 6p and Pixel C aren’t even 3 years old.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_6P](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_6P)

People probably bought them 2 years ago.

~~~
neogodless
Right - on sale around November 2015? 2 years OS, 3 years security. I actually
got a Nexus 6P in July 2017 (under $300 like new). It's a great phone - we'll
see how it's running in December when the security updates dry up. Maybe it'll
be time to get something else if I'm worried about unpatched security flaws.

~~~
rlanday
Android P isn’t going to be released until later this year. So if you ignore
prerelease builds, these devices will have had the latest OS for about three
years after they first went on sale.

------
hojjat12000
I have a Nexus 6 (Not 6P) and I'm running Android 8.1! Although it is
officially dead, but the good thing about Nexus/Pixel phones is that it is
easy to port the new version of android to them (unofficially). My phone works
better with the custom ROM than with the stock android! I know the average
person won't go through all the trouble to flash a custom ROM on their phone,
but this was one of the reason that I bought a Nexus in the first place, the
community support at XDA.

Edit: Nexus 6 came to market in 2014. I bought it in 2015 and after years of
usage, it has never been faster and snappier. Android 8.1 is quick and it gave
my phone a new life.

~~~
ben_jones
I'm interested in a phone like this for members of my family who are
constantly replacing their phones purely for "snapiness". Are there off the
shelf vendors where you can buy phones without bloatware, with decent upgrade
paths? I would so happily pay for this.

~~~
hojjat12000
I think Google provides the longest upgrade period among all Android phones
(Which clearly is not enough). But the good thing about Nexus/Pixel is that
the bootloader is unlocked (if you buy Pixel from the Google store not
Verizon). An unlocked bootloader enables you to flash cutom ROMs on your
phone. For snappiness, most of new phones with Android 8.1 are fast enough.
But again, if there is a big community for that phone in XDA (like with Nexus
phones), and the bootloader is unlocked, you will be able to flash new
versions of Android for a long time.

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alphabettsy
That’s beyond pathetic. I purchased a new Nexus 6P from Best Buy in November
2016, and now it’s not going to be updated anymore, but my grandmas iPhone 6
(Fall 2014) will be?

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colept
Why is this a surprise? Google's has shown a pattern that they don't care
about your Android hardware since they partnered with HTC and released their
first branded phone.

\- Nexus One / Paperweight Owner

