> However the best way to improve this in the current system is to spend money on the phones that promise and deliver long support lifecycles.

I think a part of the problem here is the fact that I haven't seen a phone advertise this as a selling point, not once in my life. Where's the RHEL equivalent among smartphones?

Then again, I've only used mainstream Android devices and Symbian back in the day (which was an amazing time for mobile devices, in my opinion).

Because you didn't look into it well enough.

Fairphone deliver 5 years support since release. Google do too, with their Pixel series.

Its a different ballpark than CAT. But Fairphone are easy to repair due to the modularity.

> Because you didn't look into it well enough.

But that's just my point! Manufacturers are keen to shove their new fancy camera solutions and how thin their devices are and the notches and so on in my face.

Why isn't the same done in regards to the ruggedness (CAT does, other manufacturers have tried with Gorilla Glass at best), battery life (where are the smartphones that will last me a week without being recharged?) or the long support cycles (security updates for the OS, maybe even an unlocked bootloader and open source drivers)?

If i'm not overwhelmed with ads about these things (or at least don't see them advertised as one of the first things about the device), then clearly the manufacturers don't really deem it a priority/a selling point? Who knows...

It's nice to have options, but having to look for these things yourself reminds me of people talking about the year of the Linux desktop, while the majority of people out there don't even know what Linux is.

We are being flooded with 13 in a dozen smartphones and the flagship of 2 years ago is mid end of nowadays. There are Android smartphones which last long, same with smartwatches. They are rare though. User replaceable battery, hardware keyboard, foldable, rugged, thermal camera, open firmware, privacy focused OS, modular hardware. All neat innovations some of which got lost, but they are niches, and combinations of these are tough to be found. As long as the majority cares for other stuff it won't change but I ask you this: what does a Samsung S21 inherently do better than a S22? I think we are done with high specs. At some point smartphones are good enough.

I see discussion of phones supporting N years of updates in reviews pretty often. Android users I know think about it. Selection bias, perhaps, but it seems far from an arcane thing.

That feature seems to be relegated to higher end phones or certain brands though. Lower end stuff is kinda built with the expectation that it doesn't have that requirement. Sucks for sure, and I thought Google/Android was doing a lot of work to avoid blockers for upgrades... but still hasn't seemed to pay off just yet.

Few do, but there are some of there. For example this list. But in more mainstream marketing the Pixels always have advertised their support lifespan.