News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Germany wants smartphone makers to offer 7 years of software updates. Parent comment

Re:Germany wants smartphone makers to offer 7 years of softw... by treis on Monday September 06, 2021 @04:07PM (#28437485)
I'm not sure that any significant number of people have switched phones due to lack of updates. It usually comes down to:

(1) Battery stops holding a charge

(2) The device gets damaged

(3) Cameras get a lot better

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Germany wants smartphone makers to offer 7 years of softw... by technofiend on Monday September 06, 2021 @04:35PM (#28437783)
Beyond just battery flash slowly wears out over time, degrading performance. Based on my Nexus 6 I would love it if the EU dictated batteries must be replaceable, but you need an overabundance of flash so a few years in there are still cells left to balance wear across.

The Nexus 6 automatically throttled performance based on battery left, but at some point the battery wore out to the point that less than 1/2 an hour of use got you below that threshold. After that the phone was very laggy and frustrating to use. No way anyone would want 5 years of that experience, updates or not.

[ Parent | on HN ]