Google unveiled the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones and the Pixel Watch 2 today, and while I no longer spend too many words on new phone releases on OSNews these days, this new phone does come with a rather major promise by Google.
The Pixel 8 will get seven years of Android OS updates with security patches, as well as quarterly Feature Drops. Launching with Android 14, the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro will see updates to Android 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 – assuming the naming doesn’t change before 2030.
We’ll have to see if Google keeps its promise – not an unreasonable concern – but if they do, this is unprecedented in the Android world, and even surpasses Apple’s OS support for the iPhone. This is the kind of meaningful, important dedication I like to see, and I sincerely hope Google sticks to its promise.
Regardless, the combination of some of the new camera features – which are great for taking photos and videos of small children, which I have now – and this support promise, as well as my carrier offering a free Pixel Watch 2 with any Pixel 8 Pro purchase, has made it pretty easy for me to choose the Pixel 8 Pro as my next phone when my contract runs out 12 October.
I can hardly wait to use my new Pixel 7 to play games on Stadia, remote my Jamboard, listen to Google Podcasts, and watch some YouTube Stories.
Fair phone offer longer and have a track record of honouring it. Google has dropped far to many services to believe they’ll not drop the Pixel line before 7 years is up
I would add that Fairphone cares, and does what it can, about the global impact of its logistics on people and the environment, which Thom has said many times he cares about as well. But I guess their hardware doesn’t have the shiny yet necessary bells and whistles for tech enthusiasts, which is a shame :-/
I’d normally prefer the Fairphone (for the removable battery alone!) but it’s just so huge. So the Pixel 8 (not Pro), or maybe the upcoming 8a, will be my phone of choice.
Indeed, there are inconveniences to opting for the Fairphone. It’s just a matter of where one’s priorities lie. I just received an FP5 in my household to replace a decade old Samsung phone. It’s certainly a huge bump in size (and weight !), but it’s not much bigger than the new Samsung phone my other half was given at work a few weeks ago, so it’s certainly bearable.
Ethical phone makers are scarce and can’t afford to offer many models, so we all have to make sacrifices… we just have to choose which sacrifice we do make. Of course, I do understand that one’s mileage may vary and that size can be a real show stopper.
I think this hits the nail on the head. I switched my whole company to the FP4. Initially we had a fair few grumbling about the size, but that soon enough disappeared. And when someone invariably had a hardware issue. We just repaired it.. ourselves!! In one case we just had the part sent direct to the employee and They repaired it! From a support perspective, that’s living the dream!!
My phone was released 2018 with android 8.0 and the last update from manufacturer is android 9.
I installed lineageOS and i am still getting updates to latest version of android, so it is unlikely i will buying a new phone for many years considering that there is still not a single scratch on the darn device.
(The Sony Xperia XA2 Ultra gold)
The problem with lineageOS is that there is always something not right. For example, I tried it on a Galaxy S3 a while ago, and the audio level when recording video from the camera was absurdly high, to the point minor noises sounded very loud and other audio was clipped. Also, you have to forgo whatever first-party camera app your phone’s manufacturer has put in the stock ROM, which is a deal breaker for me.