A 32-bit Nexus in a 64-bit world: Why Google's new phone isn't already obsolete.

[VW Maverick]

A 32-bit Nexus in a 64-bit world: Why Google's new phone isn't already obsolete | Android Central

Mav.

 

[dankev]

It's a good article. As Jerry alludes to, the real question is when 64 bit will become important. Without any knowledge of the situation at all, I suspect that big announcement will come in the summer of '16. If it does, most people will be ready to replace their 6 at that time already.

 

[Robbie317]

It's a good article. As Jerry alludes to, the real question is when 64 bit will become important. Without any knowledge of the situation at all, I suspect that big announcement will come in the summer of '16. If it does, most people will be ready to replace their 6 at that time already.

That is about what I figured... a year before people even start trying to take advantage of the 64 bit chips and probably 18 months if not longer before it's a majority of the apps that take advantage of it... As the article said we are still a ways away from the battery saving tech even coming full circle... and by the time developers and apps are taking full advantage of the 64 bit systems the 808, 810 and 815 Snapdragon chips will be "Old News" and we will have a whole new host of top end Snapdragon (or whatever) smartphone SOC's out....

 

[Ry]

Lollipop still needs to run on 32-bit hardware.

 

[Tony DeLuce]

The next several versions of Android need to run on 32 bit processors extremely well as we are at least a couple years away from the time when the majority of cell phone processors are 64 bit and at least 3-4 years away from when they are all 64 bit..

 

[Crispy]

Article makes no sense. ARM v8 is useful for everyone, as the article says, and there are very real performance drawbacks to not using it. If any company other than Apple had a ARM v8 capable 64-bit cpu ready, it would've been used and been much better.

So saying that 32 bit has no real disadvantage today is a bit disingenuous.

 

[mountainman15]

Article makes no sense. ARM v8 is useful for everyone, as the article says, and there are very real performance drawbacks to not using it. If any company other than Apple had a ARM v8 capable 64-bit cpu ready, it would've been used and been much better.

So saying that 32 bit has no real disadvantage today is a bit disingenuous.

Article makes perfect sense. He doesn't say that that ARM v8 isn't useful, in fact he says the opposite: "No matter which company built the CPU, if it licensed the ARM v8 specs it will make a difference in the daily operation of any smartphone."

He simply says that the Nexus 6 won't be obsolete anytime soon and it won't be.

 

[Mahesh Abnave]

Ok now thinking too buy Nexus 6 after waiting for months on feature phone after getting my Nexus 5 screwed and refunded, and cancelling choice of Lumia 1520 since Microsoft may eventually say "No Windows 10 older Lumias since its major overhaul at kernel level".

But now this article came making me worry about shelf life of Nexus 6. I want to use this phone for really long no less than 3 years as I will be investing so much in it and I really dont like wasting money unwisely on not-so-future proof stuff. So just guessing its real shelf life.

Being from Computer Science backgroud and using Windows since childhood, I still tun 32 bit Windows on my dads PC, which can very well handle photoshop.

• I really dont see any kind of super processing intensive application to run on mobiles that will reallu need 64 bits. Well what I feel is all future productivity apps can run on 32 bits. And if their developers decide to take advantage of 64 bits they will provide us with separate 64 bit version.
• Cheaper phones cannot / need not afford 64 bit processors especially when they can be made more cheaper with 32bit processors which can run todays all productivity apps and almost all games
• 64 bit mobiles will really become compulsory option only when no vendor manufacture 32 bit processors in which case their will be only 64 bit processors in the market, the way Intel and AMD no more manufacture 32 bit processors for desktops so all desktops do use 64 bit processors
• Their are billions of smartphones running Android on 32 bit processors. Google will keep providing two separate versions of Android : 32 bit and 64 bit with only difference in speed as I dont see any OS feature that can only be developed for 64 bits but not for 32 bits. Well from my experience, their is no difference between 32 bit and 64 bit Windows 8.

 

[Storm24]

I equate it to HDTVs back in the days when they first came out, or even 4K TVs now. It would be great to have one, but there is no content for them and until there is, there is no real reason to buy one yet. The reason HDTVs became so huge, is because the government made television stations go away from analog and become digital. At some point the same will be true of 32-bit to 64-bit in the mobile arena as specs and apps grow. But that is two years away at the least. I have no problems buy the N6 and knowing I can use it for at least 2 more years before I might want to upgrade...