Time to treat Apple releases like we used to treat Microsoft releases? (Always wait for the first service pack).

If iOS 11.1 can be considered "the first service pack", then even that sounds iffy. Or at least, what I'm reading suggests that even with that update, my battery life would still be crap should I decide to upgrade.

Though this gets to another problem with Apple's maintenance of iOS: If you don't upgrade to iOS 11, you don't get their fix for krack attacks. Microsoft, on the other hand, did have the common decency to continue issuing security patches for older major releases.

This. When Apple devices reach two generations old, they need to be forcibly removed from your environment, or they will quickly become gaping security holes. For a company that prides itself on its image of protecting users' privacy, it sure is behind the curve on software maintenance.

My family has 4 year old iPhone 5S in service that still receive all security updates.

Our Android devices on the other hand... not so much. Six months of updates seems to be about the max!

I think excalibur meant "when the software version is two versions back", not the hardware.

I suspect the family is still getting security updates because you are running iOS 11 on the 5S. I bought a 5S too back in 2013, it came with iOS 7. If you were still running iOS 7 (or 8, or 9, or probably even 10 now) on the device, you would not be getting updates any more.

Apple makes great hardware but they are falling farther and farther behind Android in software IMO. Modern Android on a good phone is just a smoother, more powerful, and more pleasant experience. I develop iOS apps for a living but I carry a Pixel 2 in my pocket and it's the best phone I've ever had.

Considering that unless you own a Google manufactured phone you have to wait for the latest OS and even then you only get 18-24 months worth of updates.

That's true and it's one of the main reasons I use a Google phone. But it's also true that you don't need an OS-level update to get a lot of the newest features and services on Android. Google has broken out a lot of their services and apps into separate updates so you can get them even if you're not running the latest version of Android.

I don't need an OS update to get the latest Chrome or Gmail or Maps, for example, unlike iOS.

I experienced the power cycle issue too. I narrowed it down to happening when apps update. If you turn off automatic updates for apps, you should not get into a state where you need to restart as often.

My obnoxious solution to this after restoring a backup multiple times: delete all your apps, and reinstall them. This ALMOST fixed it.

It's a pathetic solution, but it worked when nothing else would including "set up as a new phone". The apps had to break, then be deleted and reinstalled a second time, to finally work.

The other issues with 11 remain however.