Re:iPhone X – Not Yet
by ubernostrum on Sunday October 29, 2017 @06:55AM
(#15578852)
I don’t know if that’s true - I use a Nexus and it’s well supported
It is absolutely true. Outside of a few model lines which get directly supported by Google, software updates for Android phones are rare. This is one of the biggest causes of Android fragmentation -- for most people who have an Android phone, the version that came preinstalled is the only version that phone will ever have installed.
I recently switched to Android from iOS, and actually don't find this to be too big of a deal now that mobile OSs have matured somewhat. I was excited to finally be able to upgrade to Nougat a couple of months ago, but there were precisely zero user-facing differences, apart from a few inconsequential aesthetic tweaks. I can see that it is more of a problem for developers, who can't use new APIs without drastically limiting their audience.
I don’t know if that’s true - I use a Nexus and it’s well supported in terms of updates - but I actually think it might be the way to go anyway. I would quite like a situation whereby my phone gets minor and patch releases, but I have to upgrade my phone to get the next major. That way, I can have some confidence I’ll get vital security fixes and minor features without huge performance penalties, and each major release can be very highly optimised for the latest hardware.