My ne lasted a little less than 3 years. It's not the best phone if I'm honest. Battery life is horrible.
this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
22 points (86.7% liked)
Linux
56926 readers
424 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
If the applications lag to the point where you can't stand it, you're going to need a new phone anyway and for most people who use social media applications like WhatsApp etc., the performance of the phone goes outdated much sooner than the support of the OS.
Pixel 8A you can get probably very affordable now and will get updates until 2031. It's more likely that by that time you will have dropped your phone and break it or simply want a hardware upgrade.
It also supports playing AV1 in hardware even at 4k resolution.
I just ordered an 8a because of how affordable it is used on eBay (~$250USD) and specifically for long support time it still has. Probably the best bang for your buck version
That is now in question after Google has decided to close android development.
Android development isn't closed. The Pixels no longer have public device trees provided by Google, but no other device manufacturer did that either. It was a nice to have, but Graphene still got a fully functional Android 16 build out without them within a few weeks, and the device trees aren't why they build for Pixels, it's the security features.
The devicetrees between Android versions is effectively the same. They define the hardware
We won't know the impact until they try to bring up the Pixel 10
You can probably expect GOS support as long as Google supports the device, that is the main limitation. For the newer Pixels that is promised to be 7 years after release.
Going by this table, Pixel 6 is currently the oldest to get full GOS updates
That matches Google's software support
Just an FYI for those who think like this. I DID TOO.
Your cellular chip and network carrier will often phase out your frequency bands 2 to 3 years before the 7 year mark. Thus your service (internet/data) will not work long before your device loses updates. You will get fed up with your device and buy another pixel roughly every 3 generations to keep with reliable internet connectivity.
This is the answer. GrapheneOS still needs the binary blob updates from Google or probably more correctly Googles suppliers.
I can only share experience with Sailfish OS: As long as you don't drop your phone, it will easily last five years and might last eight. It depends of course as well how much you use some of the cancer that the modetn web is. Looking up the Arch Wiki requires a lot less ressources than browsing LinkedIn.
By 8 years old even the newest devices will be out of software support and using EOL phones is not a particularly great idea for security. GOS's security focus goes out of window if you use an old version with known vulnerabilities.
Sailfish OS has very long support times and the licenses I got so far are without time limit. IIRC that has changed or might change but still significantly longer than any vendor Android.
Question is how "real" that support is - firmware updates matter and depend mostly on the chip manufacturer's support.
firmware updates matter and depend mostly on the chip manufacturer's support.
Can you give examples for this?
The deeper problem is that the OS Vendors for phones are already adversial. They want to extract as much pesonal data as possible. IMO, that is not really better than having malware on one's phone.