i don't think they like the android community much since a lot of the community is dedicated toward getting away from the surveillance and theft that Google profits from.

The last selling point of a Pixel was the quick updates and long update life

And I thought it was the ability to re-lock bootloader with a custom key which is why Graphene OS is only developed for Pixels.

I agree, from a user point of view, however from Google's point of view guys only job is to make money for the company, which he seems to be doing.

Android has been left to languish and especially the mid range and budget segment. Google had let OEM's use the largest sales market to keep selling junk low spec phones year after year with the same specs and no meaningful improvements. If you wanna really great cameras or wireless charging, your only choice is to buy a premium device. That locks out billions of people from having a great Android experience.

Even the premium segment hasn't seen that much improvement from Google. It's basically only Samsung who are pushing things forward through OneUI and through hardware Innovations like folding phones and zoom cameras to make the experience better.

I for one am tired of it and have decided that my next phone is an iPhone. For the same price as an A55 I can get a brand new iPhone 12 or for less I can get a refurbished model and have far superior cameras than any Android below €750 as well as years of OS updates and enjoy all the great user features Apple has added to iOS recently.

The last iPhone I had was the 7 and it was ok but my S7 Edge was better. I've been on Android since then but now iPhone has finally made some great improvements in both hardware and software which I think should offer me a better experience than budget Android.

You talk about android then bring up random points about the pixel phones. Those are two separate things. One could say android is doing well because multiple manufacturers have adopted the 7 year policy that google initially put forward. I mainly use iOS so not an android fanboy, but your rant isn’t really making a coherent point.

They're not concerned with product, they're concerned with profit. They're strategically cutting away bits and pieces that don't make money. Incidentally, these are all the fun and exciting bits, leaving behind the blandness.

Despite Sundar's leadership, do you think that extending update support to 7 years took no innovation? The Android team has been doing major system reworks to make this practical. The Tensor team has been working to do the same on the hardware side. Samsung is likely reusing firmware and software from that work given that the hardware is shares a lot of Samsung IPs. Prior to these developments Samsung was not interested in providing anywhere close to this length of support.

Android is in the best place it's ever been since its release. It's on more things than ever and we have the kind of update support we used to only dream about in 2008. And we have devices with unlockable and rekockable bootloaders. 🤯

That's typical clickbait: give a vague title to make people click.

Google is also giving support for its Pixel devices since the Pixel 8 line.
And their Pixel 8a is also going to get 7 years of support, which is neat.

Hopefully others follow.

This is for the S series lineup. Samsung still have their A series and M,F,C series in other markets.

I see it as the other way around. People are going to keep their phones for longer whether or not they fix the security issues that emerge. It’s better to fix the issues, to improve user perception and user experience.

Smart phones are on increasingly longer replacement cycles before the announcement. Perhaps they see the writing on the wall.

Insane request.

Attempts have been made to improve battery longevity in software, but at the end of the day battery chemistry sets the rules.

That would be too far fetched in reality.

They should at least make it easy to buy a genuine battery over that lifespan. Nobody should have to browse eBay & AliExpress for a replacement component that could theoretically explode.

Manufacturers should also be forced to promote battery recycling practices & initiatives too. They are tossing endless amounts of them onto rubbish piles via planned obsolescence and yearly updates.

I'm all for consumer protection, but I don't think demanding new hardware for free is reasonable at all. Making them easily available and replaceable would be.