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Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

cnet.com

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Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#101

Post by kramerger »

NathanCollins wrote: post #10
CrypticShift wrote: post #5

It seems this is only for the new S24 series. I hope this gradually extends to lower ranges. Personally, I find a 2023 phone at 1/8th of the price [1] to be sufficient for my use (spec-wise) Now a removable battery and Less "freezing" [2] please. [1] https://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=12583&idPhone... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38995719

Great point! I have a "cheap" Samsung M32 that I bought for about $170. One reason I chose this Samsung phone over a similarly priced phone from a competitor was that I wrongly believed that Samsung provided several years more OS and security updates. After buying the phone I realized that longer support only applied to flagship models :/

So the SAMsung tiers are like this:

S: flagship

A: mid range

M: mostly garbage

I can absolutely use an A as my daily driver, but M I will not touch. And you paid way too much for an M series phone, I would say they are worth $80-100.

Based on that, I can see why they can't give you 7 years of support. Besides, most M series use some unknown Chinese CPU that will never receive any kernel updates after release.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#103

Post by FirmwareBurner »

sundvor wrote: post #30
hulium wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not, it supports ad blockers so at least it is better than Chrome. Also it can put the URL bar at the bottom which makes much more sense on a phone.

Yup. I use the Samsung browser as my primary - thanks to the adblockers.

But how do you sync it with your desktop browser? As in history, bookmarks, etc.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#104

Post by Kuinox »

WheatMillington wrote: post #34
Kuinox wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 7 years I hear that Samsung apps are "quite nice theses days". I never found it to be true. I owned a Samsung S7, it was atrocious, people said it was great, the bloatware was painful, the gesture to open the apps drawer was conflicted with the gesture to open Samsung pay (which didn't worked with my bank), you can't disable Samsung pay, if you switch the launcher, it's still there. Searching the settings took…

Your experience is well out of date

People also said this to me when I had a S7, my mom then got a S10e a year after it's release. It's UI was only slightly less worse than the S7.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#105

Post by rekoil »

Derbasti wrote: post #83

This is the new EU law, so every handset sold in the EU will be required to do this. This is just Samsung following the law.

Oh shit I must have missed that one, which one is that?

The EU are fucking killing it these days actually. So happy to see it. We had a scare there with Chat Control 2.0 but thankfully it was shot down, besides that we've gotten GDPR, USB-C charging ports, the Digital Markets Act, eIDAS is coming which looks like it could be pretty great, digital drivers licenses, etc. A lot of good stuff.

What did I miss?

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#106

Post by rekoil »

namibj wrote: post #96
lopis wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your work network can tell which phones got security patches? And that's a requirement for being in the network?

Replace phone (instance) with phone (model), and it quickly makes sense.

To be fair there are endpoint protection solutions that provide phone (instance) information that can be used to decide if the particular device is secure enough to be allowed on the network.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#107

Post by 38 »

hacketthfk wrote: post #86
38 wrote: post #53

what we really need is a way to disable forced updates. how people are not more upset by that is beyond me. every time I say that people scream "BUT MUH SECURITY", as if thats the only thing that matters and nothing else should even be considered. I am an adult. if I want to disable updates, I should be able to do so. give me multiple, loud warnings before doing so, fine, but dont stop people outright. otherwise its…

You're an adult. Stop buying toys for babies. Even better, start a company creating real phones for adults. That's what adults do when they face a problem - they solve it and maybe even make money.

great idea. every single time I have an annoyance in life, I will just start a company to fix it. that is certainly scalable!

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#108

Post by wkat4242 »

m1keil wrote: post #94
Kuinox wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 7 years I hear that Samsung apps are "quite nice theses days". I never found it to be true. I owned a Samsung S7, it was atrocious, people said it was great, the bloatware was painful, the gesture to open the apps drawer was conflicted with the gesture to open Samsung pay (which didn't worked with my bank), you can't disable Samsung pay, if you switch the launcher, it's still there. Searching the settings took…

I had similar feeling about Samsung in the past but I think it is quite better nowadays. But there definitely is some AOSP/Samsung duality you cannot escape. My current gripes with existing s23+ is usually one of following: 1. Some of their features are being offloaded to unknown 3rd party vendors (e.g call spam detection). 2. They really want you to install some sort of McAfee AV on your phone to get the "secure" ti…

Agree with 1,2 and 4. Too much privacy-invading external crap.

But they're not really behind. I already got the 1 January Android security update a few days ago on my S23.

Considering they need to do testing and possible modifications I don't think this is very slow.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#109

Post by wkat4242 »

rekoil wrote: post #105
Derbasti wrote: post #83

This is the new EU law, so every handset sold in the EU will be required to do this. This is just Samsung following the law.

Oh shit I must have missed that one, which one is that? The EU are fucking killing it these days actually. So happy to see it. We had a scare there with Chat Control 2.0 but thankfully it was shot down, besides that we've gotten GDPR, USB-C charging ports, the Digital Markets Act, eIDAS is coming which looks like it could be pretty great, digital drivers licenses, etc. A lot of good stuff. What did I miss?

I agree they are going good things with GDPR and DMA/DSA.

But the fact that they even proposed ChatControl and it really had to be fought to be defeated, doesn't instill a lot of confidence in continued progress and vision towards privacy. It feels like the winds could turn just like that.

Re: Samsung extends Android and security updates to 7 years

#110

Post by Yujf »

wmf wrote: post #72
NathanCollins wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point! I have a "cheap" Samsung M32 that I bought for about $170. One reason I chose this Samsung phone over a similarly priced phone from a competitor was that I wrongly believed that Samsung provided several years more OS and security updates. After buying the phone I realized that longer support only applied to flagship models :/

Another way to look at it is that you could buy a new $170 phone every two years and it would still be cheaper than an S24.

But you would also be stuck with a $170 phone, which depending on how you use the thing can be a slight inconvenience or a total disaster.
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