Hello all. I currently have a phone which uses a competing operating system and I'm having so much trouble with it that I'm looking at going ahead and using my upgrade to get a new phone right now. Problem is we're somewhere in the middle for flagship release cycles, but I don't know how much longer I can put up with my current handset before I smash it with a hammer. Which brings me to my main question. The S5 is now about 8 months old, which is a bit long in the tooth as far as technology time is concerned. I've been researching and decided that if I do go ahead and upgrade the S5 seems like the best option currently on the market and is the one I'm going to get. Anyway, what does everyone think the useful life will be for this phone as far as potential OS updates, etc? I will have to keep it about 18 months if I do get it, which is a pretty long time but it will put me due for my next upgrade a month or two after the S7 comes out. Do you all think Samsung will keep it current up til that point? I really need a new phone but don't want it to end up being a legacy device in six months or so.Thanks.
Opinions wanted on longevity
- Thread starter psychotron
- Start date
Rukbat
Retired Moderator
Two years with most devices, a little longer with the flagships.
18 months, almost definitely. (And you don't always need the latest and greatest - I replace my Note 3 when it dies. What can a Note 4 do that a Note 3 can't, except take pictures of such high resolution that you couldn't tell the difference unless you were printing large posters.)
AZgl1500
Well-known member
The S5 has one more release guaranteed for sure, that upgrade will be Android 5.0 which will be "sometime in 2015".
As far as the phone itself being useful, forever almost if it is not damaged.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S that is still in service after 4 years on the original battery. It has WiFi and Data turned OFF because my wife only uses it to make calls and read SMS from our kids. She never sends out an SMS. Neither of these functions requires DATA.
That 4 year old phone still gets almost 3 days per battery charge cycle because the internet is turned OFF.
All that said, my S5 will still be working for a long long time yet. I used that old 'S' phone for my personal phone 3+ years before getting my S5 this year.
The S5 will still compete with any Flagship phone for a long time yet. The differences between phones of any make, now are being measured in much smaller increments than before. As Rukbat just said, even if a new flagship comes out with a 30k pixel camera, that will be totally unnoticeable on the phone itself, and will only be detectable or a 50 inch TV screen or a 6 foot wide poster.
the other little tiny nuances are so minor, unless one is really super annoyed with a feature, I just cannot justify wasting money on a different "replacement phone". I never sell a phone, I keep them as backups.... and I cannot justify having a "backup flagship" phone laying around unused.
as an aside, have you been reading the news that Samsung is going to deep six a lot of their model line ups? There is just not enough profit being made from having a huge multitude of models available. They are going to reduce their phones to fewer models. There are so many models of phones available now, that it is impossible for any one phone model to have a deep impact on corporate profits anymore. So, I predict that the Samsung S5 will still be very competitive for a few years yet.
As far as the phone itself being useful, forever almost if it is not damaged.
I have a Samsung Galaxy S that is still in service after 4 years on the original battery. It has WiFi and Data turned OFF because my wife only uses it to make calls and read SMS from our kids. She never sends out an SMS. Neither of these functions requires DATA.
That 4 year old phone still gets almost 3 days per battery charge cycle because the internet is turned OFF.
All that said, my S5 will still be working for a long long time yet. I used that old 'S' phone for my personal phone 3+ years before getting my S5 this year.
The S5 will still compete with any Flagship phone for a long time yet. The differences between phones of any make, now are being measured in much smaller increments than before. As Rukbat just said, even if a new flagship comes out with a 30k pixel camera, that will be totally unnoticeable on the phone itself, and will only be detectable or a 50 inch TV screen or a 6 foot wide poster.
the other little tiny nuances are so minor, unless one is really super annoyed with a feature, I just cannot justify wasting money on a different "replacement phone". I never sell a phone, I keep them as backups.... and I cannot justify having a "backup flagship" phone laying around unused.
as an aside, have you been reading the news that Samsung is going to deep six a lot of their model line ups? There is just not enough profit being made from having a huge multitude of models available. They are going to reduce their phones to fewer models. There are so many models of phones available now, that it is impossible for any one phone model to have a deep impact on corporate profits anymore. So, I predict that the Samsung S5 will still be very competitive for a few years yet.
Isn't that the truth. My decision between the S6 and Moto X 2014 literally came down to which camera had the better shutter speed and image quality, everything else was so nearly equal. Well, except battery life.
These pretty much answered my questions. The way I understand it is that the S5 should be seeing Lollipop in January (if rumored roadmaps are to be believed), I was just concerned that there may not be any further updates beyond that. I've had Samsung devices as recently as about three years ago and their reputation for keeping them current wasn't stellar then, so I just wanted to check in and see how they're doing now.
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codeda
Well-known member
Is there a way to wait and get the s6? I was reading on pocket now this morning that it's looking to be announced at CES next month. If I'm not doing nexus I personally like to get the phone as close to release just because OEMs are so bad at keeping up with new phones. Either way good luck!
Oh sure, I could wait. If I want to keep using a phone whose camera doesn't work anymore and won't connect to wifi for the next 4-5 months until the S6 actually shows up, but I'm not really willing to do that. Since the S series typically hit the street about April I'm not counting on anything coming early. Companies generally don't change their release cycles that drastically.
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