See, a lot of people are excited about Android 14, but the S20FE is already on security update-only status... meanwhile the iPhone 13 of the same vintage just got a major OS upgrade.
And next year, when the S20FE won't even have security updates, the 13 will get another major upgrade. And probably another after that.
_
In fact, if you had bought a refurb $500 iPhone when the S20FE was announced (iPhone 11!), you'd still be getting into the new update the S20FE just missed out on.
That is how absurdly abysmal Android support it: you could have gotten a 2 year older phone and actually gained an upgrade cycle.
Also fun fact: the 2 year older iPhone 11 would also be faster than the S20 FE
I don't disagree with the update story being still a problem with Android, but iOS users tend to blow it up to a level higher than it actually is because they don't understand how Android is segmented.
You see, if Apple dropped support for your iPhone, you would never be able to ever get a browser upgrade again, since Safari's engine updates are tied to iOS itself.
Android doesn't do that. Very old phones past their prime and past the security updates support will still receive the latest Chrome with latest web standards support and security fixes for itself (though it won't stop other apps from being able to, say, exploit a privilege escalation vulnerability and other things of that vein).
You will continue to receive upgraded Messages etc.
Many of the APIs are updated independently too from the OS, through the Play Store, and because the developer community is aware of the OS update fragmentation, they also tend to target older SDKs for compatibility. So android phones are not becoming obsolete as fast as some Apple-exclusive users seem to believe from only being informed about "android doesn't get updates".
By the time my phone is truly done I will probably buy a new one because the battery will have worn out beyond my tolerance, as it always happens with these devices just as it happens on iPhones (I used to be on the iPhone camp when prices had not turned obscene, started with a 3g and ended with the 5s. No, I'm not paying $1k on a goddamn smartphone just because I prefer a bigger screen.).
To remark on not being able to get 14: it's sad, but I don't really miss it. I've never used webcams in my entire life, and the other OS level features aren't particularly important. IMHO, both iOS and Android have become mature as OSes and most of what people care about is in the app ecosystem, not what comes out of the factory.
I've launched AOSP devices professionally, so I understand how Android is segmented better than most...
You spent way too many words trying to downplay some pretty simple facts: Android OS updates are what contain most headline features lay people recognize.
GPS/Mainline cover things that are implementation details as far as they know, and don't cover the binary blobs which are the biggest reason why losing security updates in a year is going to mean the S20FE is forever an insecure device, regardless of what Mainline can deliver or what going with a custom rom does.
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Also Android is extremely far from mature, things like Project Mainline show we haven't even settled on how far Google gets to sink the closed sourced claws of their GPS into the core of it.
I mean you've got Android 14 finally adding the APIs to properly support scrolling on high FPS displays. Android had 120hz displays years before Apple and somehow manages to screw up these basic cases because they have no unified product vision to speak of.
Maybe Android will be "mature" once Google is done with their iOS-ization of AOSP driven by crappy vendors, but for now the updates are extremely meaningful.
1) iPhone 13 is 09/2021; Galaxy S20 FE is 09/2020. One year older device.
2) System updates do not mean the same on Android and iOS. On Android, all the apps are going to be updated still. Browser, mail, chat, maps are not hostages to system update. Conversely, security-only updates on Android are perfectly fine. Most users would not see difference between major releases anyway.
You're instead referring to Google Play Services alternatives, which get updated but also don't represent the headline features that get announced with new Android releases.
> Most users would not see difference between major releases anyway
Absurd take when Google spends literal millions marketing the new features native to Android releases (not app releases, Android releases)
And in less than a year the binary blobs running half the phone in your pocket will no longer get updated, so it elevates from being a feature issue to being a security issue.
> You're instead referring to Google Play Services alternatives, which get updated but also don't represent the headline features that get announced with new Android releases.
And next year, when the S20FE won't even have security updates, the 13 will get another major upgrade. And probably another after that.
_
In fact, if you had bought a refurb $500 iPhone when the S20FE was announced (iPhone 11!), you'd still be getting into the new update the S20FE just missed out on.
That is how absurdly abysmal Android support it: you could have gotten a 2 year older phone and actually gained an upgrade cycle.
Also fun fact: the 2 year older iPhone 11 would also be faster than the S20 FE