One of the most important parts of the Google Australia briefing I attended last week was when they displayed these 3 slides, which set a new industry standard by promising the new Pixel 8 Pro and Pixel 8 Android phones will get updates until September 2030.
That’s not a typo. Google promises that:
“Pixel phones are engineered to last and get better over time. With your Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, you’ll receive the latest OS and security updates for seven years from launch date on the Google Store in the USA, and new helpful features with Feature Drops every few months”.
Previous generation Pixel phones will continue to get the number of years of updates they were promised at launch as detailed on the Pixel Updates page eg:
“Pixel 6 and later phones, including Fold, will get updates for at least 5 years from when the device first became available on the Google Store in the US. These updates include security, software, and may also include feature drops.”
In comparison buyers of
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Series phones are promised updates 4 years for One UI (Android OS) and 5 years for security.
- Motorola Australia’s top end phones such as the Thinkphone are promised get 3 years of Android OS updates and 4 years of security updates
Although these major Android phone brands are all now promising many years of updates the catch is their phones all have sealed batteries which cannot be replaced by the user and may wear out before the final software update arrives.
