Smartphone without updates? What to do!?

Any iPhone or Google Pixel in this lifetime will receive updates for 5, 6, or even 7 years. Therefore, it is very likely that there will be functionality and security updates throughout the device’s entire life cycle.

However, this is not the norm. The vast majority of smartphones available on the market do not receive updates for years. In fact, on the Android side of things, an update is not immediately available when Google officially releases it. This has to go through the smartphone manufacturer, it has to be modified, approved, and only at the end of all this can it or may not be made available.

This is exactly why Android smartphones generally have a shorter support cycle, with a much greater focus on major manufacturers (Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, etc…), and of course, with much more numerous and faster updates on top models. gamma. You can find out more in the article below:

Having said all this, what do you do when your smartphone stops receiving updates?

Although it’s nice to receive and play with the latest features in the world of smartphones, the reality is that security updates are more important from the point of view of keeping your cell phone working well for as long as possible.

This is especially true in these times, when we have so much of us on our smartphones, whether they are photos of us, of the people we love most in our lives, or of course, personal information where we have to include bank details. This is exactly why Google applies security fixes to the Android Open Source Project on a monthly basis, which will later be collected by manufacturers and in turn implemented on devices almost always very quickly (it depends on the manufacturer).

The problem is that the vast majority of manufacturers do not release security updates every month for all smartphones. In fact, in reality, even top-of-the-range models only receive security updates quickly and consistently in the first year.

Then things become scarcer, until unfortunately they disappear completely. (Link)

What does all this mean? Well… Running out of updates, particularly security ones, almost always means it’s time to change your phone.

What is a security update? Well, these updates fix critical vulnerabilities that affect the Android operating system, the APIs and the underlying hardware on which the applications running on your smartphone are based.

Of course, this does not mean that your smartphone will become completely obsolete or unusable, or rather, that it will be completely fragile to all the viruses and scams in the world of cell phones. But, it will undeniably be more unprotected. In fact, it will become more unprotected over time, because vulnerabilities and problems will only accumulate.

What to do?

Most of the time, we only look at the technical specifications and price. However, it is increasingly important to also understand how many updates a manufacturer offers.

• Example: Google now offers 7 years of updates to its Pixel devices.

Software is increasingly important, and will only gain more importance over the next few years! Especially now that AI is making its way into the world of smartphones and computers.