They didn’t, Google are the first to do three years of OS updates and security patches with the Pixel 2 and extended that to the first gen Pixel. Samsung were doing two OS updates until they promised they would do 3 OS updates at the Note20 launch and extended it to the S10 and other models. You are correct that they upgraded that to four with the S21 before Google made the jump from 3 to 7.

It was comparable in price to the Edge 40 in India which was the only market it was launched in at the time of the comment. The European price is over the top but it should probably get price cuts soon.

A hands-on article from the same website says it’s not pure wood. It’s been treated to protect it from water and skin oil

There were rumours about “Dream Chip” i.e. Samsung Mobile designing their own chip. Exynos is designed by Samsung LSI, they’re part of the same conglomerate but there is a lot of internal competition apparently. Might explain why the Samsung OLED panel on iPhones is sometimes ahead of the Samsung OLED panel on Samsung flagships.

True, although you’d have to pay quite a bit extra to get 7 years of updates as this phone is half the MSRP of a Pixel 8. The 7a is a year old now so it’ll likely only get two more years of OS updates and four years of security patches. Tbf it is good Nothing are providing 3 updates since the phone is $300 in India and €349 in Europe. The Poco X6 Pro matches the update commitment but MIUI had a reputation for being buggy outside China. HyperOS (MIUI’s successor) also has ads in system apps and a lot of pre-loaded bloatware. It does have a faster chip and storage compared to the Phone 2a though so there are pros and cons to both devices.

It might not be powerful enough to run the software longer and the hardware may show it’s age. Secondly the cost of the phone cannot be ignored either, more software updates means more money spent on software development. Android updates have to be certified by Google. This process costs money. It isn’t feasible to expect a company to provide more than 4-5 years of updates at that price point unless they start charging for updates or make money through services or ads.

I don’t know if the hardware will be good enough in 4 years anyways. They’ve cut corners to get to that price point, the chip is similar to the 778G from 3 years back and it’s using UFS 2.2. Honestly the phone feels like it was made for India and the marketing indicates that. They don’t have many options with a clean OS and 3 years of OS updates at that price point there.

All Sony phones (including their flagships) get two years of OS updates and three years of security patches. That’s rumoured to change this year but the Xperia 1 III and 5 III are not getting Android 14.

It costs less than any of Apple or Google’s offerings and they do not make money through software and services unlike Apple or Google. I think it’s unreasonable to expect 7 years or more of OS updates on a phone that costs $300-400. They should do better on their flagship though, it costs double but still has the same support.

This phone is 72.4 mm wide according to GSMarena. Height might still be an issue for you since it’s 161.2 mm

Tbf it is cheaper than the Edge 40 Pro, they messed up their naming. This phone is the successor to the Edge 40 not the Pro. Mind you there are still some downgrades as they downgraded the storage to UFS 2.2.

3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security patches according to the product page

If you’re willing to pay a lot of money, Sony might be an option. They have kept the micro SD card on their phones. There are rumours they’ll start updating their phones longer with the VI series too but we’ll have to wait and see.

Yeah it’s strange some of them expect the exact same specs as the Pro or Ultra phone in a smaller form factor. Some sacrifices have to be made to fit components in a smaller form factor as you cannot overcome the laws of physics. I’ve seen many ridiculous comments saying manufacturers can fit the same cameras and all the sensors along with a bigger battery if they made the phone thicker. It’s almost as if they expect the bigger phone to get neutered to maintain parity.

Flexible OLED panels have smaller bezels, better viewing angles and are less prone to exhibiting a rainbow effect. You can check Dylan Raga’s review of the Pixel 6, 7 and 8 to see why the 8’s display is an upgrade over the 6 and 7.

Yeah that’s a fair point. I don’t like the output of the primary sensor and the 3x on the S24. Feels like they oversharpen and oversaturate colours way too much. Also feel the hardware is lacking compared to the Pixel 8 and iPhone 15 Pro’s sensor as they’re physically bigger and don’t have as much of a problem with shutter lag.

I’m not a fan of the cameras on the S24 and base iPhone 15. Samsung have recycled the same cameras for three generations now, I think they can put a larger primary sensor in there.

To be honest looking at the teardowns it’s impressive what Apple and Samsung have managed to fit in their phones, I think the Xiamoi 14 Ultra isn’t doing itself any favours with that camera placement though, seems inefficient having the modules in the middle of the phone?

Idk, Apple does a better job with the Pro as compared to the regular model. Google, Xiaomi and Asus managed to fit bigger batteries on the Pixel 8, Xiaomi 14 and Zenfone 10 without increasing the size too much. Here’s a teardown of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra. It seems like they’re using space pretty efficiently in there.

I don’t think they’re going to be able to put the same cameras on a smaller phone, especially if you look at something like the Xiaomi 14 Ultra or the Oppo Find X7 Ultra. The sensors are massive and require a lot of space. You may be able to fit two of those sensors on a 6.1 inch phone without compromising on other things like the battery, haptics, antennae for example. They could probably fit a bigger battery by making the phone thicker but it seems like manufacturers like a uniform thickness for most of their models or somewhere thereabouts probably because it’s easier to machine the frame.

Yeah they’re regular sized, you could consider the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro as regular sized as well. I think they could probably do a smaller phone about the size of the iPhone 12/13 mini as well if they wanted to. However I’m not sure if they’ll do it since the S22 is their smallest phones since the S10e and they haven’t gone smaller than that unless you go all the way back to the S4 (which itself has a similar width to the S10e). I understand why they wouldn’t do it because it seems the people who want an iPhone 5S to iPhone mini sized phone are extremely vocal but that doesn’t seem to translate to numbers in real life.

It probably is if the rumour about them switching to a 19.5:9 resolution is true. It’ll still be larger than the S24 and Pixel 8 because of the top and bottom bezel but height should decrease by a couple of mm.