Lengthy software support has become one of the main selling points in modern smartphones. Manufacturers that offer only three or four years of updates are often criticized when competitors promise half a decade or more of support, even on mid-range phones.
Even though I’m a tech enthusiast, I’ve long since stopped caring about smartphone updates. After daily driving a phone that stopped receiving updates years ago, I no longer see years of software support as a major selling point. Allow me to explain.2
Android updates aren’t the big deal they used to be
We’ve come a long way
There was a time when Android updates were some of the biggest events of the year in the tech world. As we cycled through Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop, and so on, each new update brought a near-complete visual overhaul with all-new features that changed how we interacted with our phones.
Remember when Material Design first came out with Lollipop? It completely overhauled how Android feels and looks.
Today, it’s a different story. Modern Android updates are iterative rather than transformational. They add a few minor features here and there, or refine the layout of something like the notifications slider, while often still allowing you to revert to the old layout.
Android skins that run on top of stock Android have only made these yearly updates less important. For instance, Samsung rarely makes drastic changes to its OneUI design, so if you compare a phone that hasn’t been updated in three years with one that came out yesterday, you’ll be playing “spot the difference” to figure out what’s new.
The Dream of Stock Android is Dead, and That’s Okay
At least it brought TouchWiz to the grave with it.
So, when a manufacturer claims that their new phone will see seven years of updates, don’t get too excited. You might get some of the standard features, but the manufacturer still decides if you’re going to get their cool proprietary stuff. To give you a point of reference, it took Samsung quite a while to add some AI features to the Galaxy S22, but it still didn’t get all of them.
Frankly, individual app updates matter far more in day-to-day usage than OS updates.
Most Android users rely heavily on Google apps, and since Google frequently updates everything from Gboard and Gmail to Docs and Maps, you can still have the experience of the most up-to-date app even on a phone that’s five years old.
Being years behind on Android didn’t break my old phone
Despite what you might hear
Just because a phone hasn’t received the latest Android update or two doesn’t necessarily mean it’s obsolete or broken.
I’m speaking from experience—I’ve used the Realme X2 Pro for well over five years before upgrading to the OnePlus 15 just a couple of weeks ago. My old Realme hadn’t received a major update since November 2021, and yet I still used it every single day without encountering any major issues.
All of my important apps worked fine, Android Auto received all the latest updates, and I was even able to play the majority of games. There were only a few compatibility issues: some niche apps didn’t work at all, and I faced some hardware limitations as well. I couldn’t use the 2.4GHz wireless dongle that came with my SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds, and my Shure MV6 microphone refused to work.
Aside from those fringe use cases, there was hardly anything wrong with my old phone. I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything, which is why I had postponed an upgrade for so many years.
Great hardware matters more than years of promised support
Hardware needs to last as long as software
The reason I was able to daily drive the Realme X2 Pro for so long was that it’s equipped with a flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 855 Plus.
The processor is old by today’s standards, but back then, it was the fastest chip available, outperforming many other budget and mid-range SoCs that came several years later. The phone also features UFS 3.0 storage, which kept tasks like loading files and browsing the gallery smooth.
Despite the phone’s age, I never noticed any major slowdown during regular use. Of course, my new OnePlus 15 is much faster, but despite the several generations of processors between the two—which might make you expect a massive performance gap—the difference isn’t actually that big.
By the way, the reason I picked up the OnePlus 15 instead of something that’ll get seven years of updates, like a Google Pixel, is the hardware, not the software.
The OnePlus 15 is only getting four major OS updates and six years of security updates, and even though I’ll probably upgrade to a new phone long before the updates stop, this was one of the few things I didn’t factor into my purchase decision.
Security updates are the line you shouldn’t cross
Keep your phone safe
Although I’ve used an outdated phone for years, I can’t, in good conscience, recommend you do the same. While a lack of new feature updates and potential bugs or compatibility issues can be annoying, there’s a much bigger reason to avoid using an outdated phone: security updates.
Security patches are so crucial that Google releases a new update every single month. They protect your device from major vulnerabilities such as malware, account hacks, and data theft, especially when connecting to public Wi-Fi. Risking sensitive data like your photos, passwords, and banking information being stolen is extremely dangerous.
This means that once a phone stops receiving security updates, you should seriously consider upgrading to a new device. I took a serious risk by continuing to use an outdated phone, but you should never do that if you care about your data. You can factory reset the old phone and avoid connecting it to the internet if you’d still like to use it around the house.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
