The long support paradox: Google and Samsung are selling a 7-year illusion

After years of Android phones being overshadowed and mocked by Apple’s typical 5-year device support, Google and Samsung (and many others) said “Enough is enough!” and any new Galaxy or Pixel comes out with a staggering promise of seven years of full updates.

Meaning, if you buy a new model now, in 2026, it will supposedly receive new Android builds, features, and security patches all the way until 2033.

On paper, this is a massive win for the environment, our wallets, and digital security. But in practice, it has birthed a deep consumer dilemma known as The Long Support Paradox.

The friction, on the surface, comes from battery health concerns. While the software can be refreshed for nearly a decade, the physical cell in your phone will be prone to wear-and-tear. So, let's start with that:

First concern: Lithium-Ion vs. Father Time

The most immediate bottleneck to keeping a Google Pixel or a Samsung Galaxy phone for seven years is the battery.

While operating systems receive clean, digital updates, the lithium-ion batteries powering them physically degrade with every single charge cycle. A full cycle counts when you recharge your phone from 0% to 100% once.

However, it’s a cumulative ordeal — of course you are not hitting 0% every single day. But every time you plug in to top up, the battery’s cells are getting a jolt of energy and going their aging process one little bit at a time.

Most modern smartphone batteries are rated to retain about 80% of their original capacity after roughly 1,000 full charge cycles. There’s a slight deviation between brands, but 1,000 is the golden middle, sometimes it’s 800, sometimes it’s 1,200.

An average user will typically use about 60%-70% of their battery per day before plugging back in. That’s roughly 220-255 cycles per year.

So, with that clean math, your phone should be good up to year 4. At this point, you should start noticing battery life being shorter and phone performance dropping, as the processor can no longer pull the same high power from the battery for sustained periods of time.

You can still reach the 7-year finish line

Ultimately though, you should be fine with a simple battery replacement down the line. It’ll run you around $100, and that’s still infinitely better than spending another $1,000+ for a brand-new phone.

We don't call a car's 100,000-mile warranty an "illusion" just because you have to change the tires and the oil along the way.

But that gets me thinking…

Second concern: What will the software look like 7 years from now?

Alright, so manufacturers are promising a staggering 7 years of support. That’s pretty generous, but we still haven’t had one of these newer devices reach their 7th year. So, we can only expect what history has taught us so far.

Operating systems do not stay the same size. Every year, Android and iOS get heavier, packing in more background processes, more complex security encryption, and increasingly demanding AI models.

To top it off, manufacturers often find a reason for “that particular” new feature to only be available on the newest flagships. Often, the argument is that the older device hardware just “can’t handle” these fantastical new features.

And also often, that turns out to be a lie. Either a savvy jailbreaker will find a way to make it run on a 2-year-old phone, or there may be no excuse at all.



Take Google’s Video Boost feature for example. It launched exclusively on the Pixel 8 Pro. However, that’s absurd, because it’s all calculated in the cloud — Google says so itself. Your video gets uploaded and processed entirely off-device.

So, the Pixel 8 didn’t get it, and even worse — the Pixel 7 Pro, which was only 12 months old at the time, also didn’t.

Sure, you could make the argument that companies have the right to offer premium features to the customers that pay the premium Pro price. But did the users that spent the money on a Pixel 7 Pro just 12 months before the Pixel 8 series released not deserve a premium bone to be thrown their way?

Take it more like a 7-year facelift commitment

It’s not just Google — we’ve also seen Samsung and Apple give us “cut-down” versions of the new software for older phones. Sure, some minor new features may trickle downwards, but some are inexplicably locked to the newer devices. Like the Photographic Styles 2.0 on iPhones 16 and up.

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