I don't care about 7 years of Android updates, and you shouldn't either

Every Android phone manufacturer, be it Google, Samsung, or any other, loves to flex its seven-year OS update promise as the ultimate way to “future-proof” your purchase. But I don’t think it plays out the same way in reality.

Sure, an Android phone can easily last six or seven years — that part isn’t in question. The real problem is that these longer updates mean nothing without new features, and even less if they just slow the phone down. That’s the part that companies obviously don’t talk about, but it’s what I want to discuss right now.

Seven years of updates doesn’t mean seven years of new features

Software updates usually mean new features. That’s the expectation, anyway. But that’s not how they always play out. The Pixel 11 launched with Android 17 and introduced a feature called Magic Capture, which lets you record a video while automatically capturing the best still images and clips. Last year’s flagship — the Pixel 10 — also got the Android 17 update, but it didn’t include Magic Capture, even though it’s a software feature.

And this isn’t some one-off example. Google did the same with Magic Cue last year. It shipped with the Pixel 10 but never made its way to older Pixel models. It’s the same story with Galaxy phones too. Galaxy AI debuted with the S24 series, and while Samsung eventually brought it to the S23 and S22 lineups, features like Audio Eraser and Now Brief stayed exclusive to newer phones.

If you’re paying a premium just for a phone to have long software support, don’t expect every new feature to come your way. Sometimes, it might arrive but take its own sweet time. The S26’s Horizontal Lock is a good example of this. The feature has just shown up in the One UI 9 beta for the S25 series, but it’ll be a few more weeks before it’s available to everyone.

So yes, companies like Samsung and Google may have marketed their seven-year update promises to one-up each other and match Apple’s perceived longevity. But long support windows aren’t the win they’re made out to be. I’d rather have three great years of updates where I get every new feature than seven mediocre years where I’m left out of the fun.

Your phone’s hardware may not be able to keep up

One of the big selling points of longer software support is that your aging phone gets the same visual overhaul as the latest flagship. That might sound like a win, but it’s not actually ideal for a four- or five-year-old phone.

I’m speaking from experience here. My Galaxy S22 is now four and a half years old, running One UI 8 (Android 16). I was initially excited when it got Galaxy AI, Now Bar, and all those cool new features, but it’s nowhere near as snappy as it used to be. All those newer software features and Galaxy AI are clearly weighing it down.

Sure, some slowdown is just what happens as any phone ages. But it gets noticeably worse when four-year-old hardware is forced to run the same way as a brand new phone. And at that point, it’s just hard to tell whether it is deliberately planned obsolescence or an unavoidable side effect of forcing the latest software. Either way, your phone is likely to end up slower than it would have been if it had never received those updates.

You still have to pay for battery replacements and other repairs

Almost every one of us has an old phone sitting around somewhere that’s still technically usable — except the battery has given up. It can’t hold a charge as it used to, and that’s expected. After three or four years, you’re realistically looking at 70 to 80 percent of original capacity depending on how hard the phone’s been used, and there’s no software update that fixes that.

Anyone who’s actually planning to ride out a phone’s entire update cycle needs to get the battery replaced at some point. And depending on the phone and where you’re getting the replacement, that’s typically $80 to $100, if not more.

That’s a fraction of what a new phone costs, sure, but it’s not always worth spending, especially if the phone has also picked up other damage along the way, like a cracked screen or a broken button. That kind of wear and tear is pretty much unavoidable over four years, and once you start tallying up every repair the phone actually needs, the total no longer makes sense for a device this old. It’s a bit sad, but that’s where we’re at with phones becoming harder to repair.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m absolutely against e-waste and throwing money away for no reason. I still repurpose my old phones for all kinds of things instead of letting them sit in a drawer. Still, dropping a few hundred on a battery swap — plus whatever else needs fixing — isn’t always worth it for an old phone. At that point, upgrading it makes more sense.

Facing the reality of long-term software support

Of course, all of this isn’t to say longer software updates are a complete waste. Security patches are the one part of this whole equation that genuinely matters. Your five-year-old Android phone might be running great right now, but if it’s no longer receiving security updates, it’s exposed to all kinds of threats. Longer updates give you that much-needed peace of mind that your device is safe.

They also make the used and refurbished market a little more appealing. If you’re not about chasing the newest feature drop every single year, a two-year-old flagship with five more years of software support left on the clock is a genuinely attractive buy. You get most of the modern flagship experience for a fraction of the price.

Still, neither of these upsides is enough to change how I feel about this whole thing. Seven years of Android updates is just another convenient excuse for companies to justify charging top dollar for their flagships. I mean, there’s a reason budget and midrange phones are still getting the short end of the stick.

Do you think longer update cycles are actually worth it, or are they just something companies love to tout during keynotes? Share your thoughts in the comments.