As someone who bought a Nexus 6P with the tagline 'Always New' and the full belief that I'd be receiving Google's latest and greatest software as soon as it was ready, I'm also hesitant. Being locked out of the new launcher, assistant and various other niceties simply because a phone with 'similar but slightly higher specs and a new name' has been released feels like a kick in the teeth to a long-time Nexus fan (I've had the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 5, Nexus 10 and Nexus 6P). Until 2 days ago it was Google's flagship model; now I'll probably get the new functionality later than iOS users.

Similar Nexus-only owner here -- Nexus 4, Nexus 5, and now Nexus 6P. I skipped Nexus 6 (released between 5 and 6P) and I'm afraid I will also skip the initial Pixel line in favor of what's next.

Depending on what's next, I may have to switch to something else entirely.

Many clamored for a flagship-quality phone and we got it, but the sticker shock is real.

I've owned the 4, 5 and both 7s, but I returned the 5X after a week. It was a good phone but the first (?) batch out of the factory had issues with the touchscreen while charging and it was $700+ here - it wasn't a $700 phone, IMO. Is the Pixel a $1200 phone? I'm not sure, but I've switched to a Moto X Style for $520 and it's quite good.

Unfortunately, I'll have to flash CM soon due to Lenovo deciding to leave the phone on a May 2016 security patch. I'm missing the Nexus updates, but Google's hardware and pricing is leaving a lot to be desired.

First tablet I owned was a HP touchpad, got burned there so decided to go with a safer choice, a year later I bought the Surface RT, what a mistake.

I then had a Nexus 7 that after an update wouldn't turn on. I tried many things until finding on some random forum from another update that you had to hold the power button will holding the volume buttons and then insert the USB charger to start it....

I don't own a tablet anymore.

I just Google Hanged-out (Hungout?) with my mother on the N7 I bought for her a few Christmas' ago and it worked just fine (AFAIK there has been no firmware releases or upgrades that 'brick'ed it - but try this https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus7/comments/2egszj/2012_is_it_d... ). I'd be curious to know what version upgrade bricked you though.

My Nexus 4 is still my favorite form-factor/experience out-of-the-box for my "I just need quick access to my email and sometimes a camera-phone/video" purposes. It was exactly what I wanted in a phone - $200 - no contract, minimalist, no junkware, hackable out of the box, large enough to one-hand for my average male 5'10 hands, decent battery life.

Granted I actively try to stay away from technology when I'm not working - i.e. I mostly use it as an equivalent for a doctors' pager in case anything catastrophic happens. It's mostly used for GPS (which is pretty phenomenal), to listen to music, and track my speeds/path when I run, etc) so I'm certainly not the power-user who needs 16gb of RAM to support 100 active Safari tabs.

When this breaks, I'm going to upgrade just out of necessity at some point at which point, assuming this isn't cluttered with junkware it's one of the few phones I'm entertaining (since there's no real viable 'open' phone on the market right now, as far as I can tell). The alternatives I'm considering is going for one of those Asian vendors (Lenovo, Xiaomi, OnePlus, Huawei). My Euro and Asian friends say they're all are putting out quality (e.g. Samsung level) stuff with no contract lock-in .

FWIW I felt similarly about my Nexus 4 and was upset when it took a bath. I replaced it with a Nexus 5 and while I initially thought it might be too big, I very quickly got used to the additional size. After two years of use I like it more than the N4 in almost every way. Would a bit more storage or a slightly better camera be nice? Sure, but I almost can't imagine a feature that a new phone could add which would compel me to shell out money for it. My N5 is awesome and I hope it lasts another 2 years.

Nexus 7, killed? Not sure how you followed it up if they bricked your device, but I owned both Nexus 7s and am still rocking the 2013 regularly.

It wasn't bricked, it was just so slow that it couldn't get past the lock screen. Lots of people complained about it on the support forums, and you could get it to work better for a few hours if you got into the settings and cleared the cache, but it wasn't worth it at that point. There was talk of a fix in an update, but I never saw one. So no, it's not like an update burned up the charging circuit or something, it just made the device unusable.

I still use a 2012 Nexus 7 which runs Cyanogenmod 12. Pretty usable for occasional browsing and watching videos.

Android OEM's need to start standardizing bootloader and driver support. Phones are a mature product, and anything I buy I expect to be able to upgrade for a good while longer than 2 years. If it's too much work for component manufacturers to maintain the updates, they need to take it out of their hands.

What do you do when Qualcomm stops updating the graphics drivers for your phone?

I agree I use iPhone 5S which is just fine and very likely to last 1 more year from now.

"Supported" -- I'm not sure if you've ever tried to use a last-gen iPhone device with the latest iOS release, but, every device I've ever owned was sketchy at best after the 1st hardware release, and completely unusable as of the 2nd. In my experience, it didn't matter if I upgraded to the S or full version model, this problem happened from 3->4, 4->5, and 5->6. I expect my wife, who is still an Apple user, to be asking me for the iPhone 7 before the year end because her phone is "a slow piece of shit".

That's simply not true. My daughter currently uses my old iPhone 5, with the latest iOS 10, and the phone works just fine (with changed battery).

As a comparison, my younger daughter inherited my old Nexus 4 (bought couple of months before I got company-issued iPhone 5), the phone introduced more or less in the same time as iPhone 5, and not only the hardware is failing (the top of the screen doesn't respond anymore), Google stopped supporting the phone after a year and some.

Complete hyperbole. I'm using an iPhone 5S with iOS 10 and it seems just as fast as the day I bought it.

I have the same to say even for the iPhone 5, which I'd been using for several years and was recently a delight to use with iOS10.

I actually just bought myself an iPhone 5s to replace it because the iPhone 5's battery life finally became unusably short after many years, but I didn't want a big phone to replace it. My 5s is also performing very well with iOS10.

My 5s is a second-hand refurb, markedly cheaper than the SE, which I was reluctant to buy after several of my acquaintances complained of the device expiring days after purchase.

My comparably old Android phone won't even allow a software update and is still on Android 4. My partner prefers Android and has a Moto G (and has a tendency to drop phones hence why I suggested something cheap to replace) and it also won't update to the latest Android version.

So while the Pixel might be the shiniest, I would be reluctant to invest in something which will not have the effective lifespan of an iPhone.

I really wish Google would make a great Android phone so I could have better integration with my Chromebook and G-Suite. Android phones can be used to unlock Chromebooks in lieu of password entry, which would be a cool feature. I use G-Suite for my business so it would be better for that too. I've never owned a Mac computer and I've little loyalty to any company. The iPhone 5s was simply the apex in terms of phone-to-pocket-size/toughness/tactility/features (for me personally).

> the SE, which I was reluctant to buy after several of my acquaintances complained of the device expiring days after purchase

As a counter point, myself and 2 friends all have the SE, and we all love it. iPhone 5 form factor, better battery life and equal performance to the iPhone 6s made it the winning choice for all 3 of us.

2 of us have had it since launch day, no regrets.

Of course it works well for many buyers. In my mind, it was still £300 more than I paid for my 5s and I had no further demands of the iPhone 5 besides a longer passcode.

I also own a 5S. While I can't say it's as fast as the day I bought it (I got it second-hand with iOS 9 loaded), it's certainly faster than the 3GS it replaced! The 3GS in turn, was a replacement for my Motorola Milestone (Droid in the US) which, despite being released the same year, received a grand total of one major OS updates and then was dropped.

iPhone 5 for my wife here. Working alright too. Older hardware used to be really crippled by each new iOS release. (we had iPhone 1 and iPhone4 before), no such problem nowadays.

Highly disagree. My 4S and 5S were both fantastic for at least two major OS cycles.

Yeah, you get about the same with the Nexus devices, at least I've got friends still running the N5 who've went from 4->5->6 without issue. I've done about the same on my OnePlus One (5 was out when I got it but it shipped with 4) so it's not unheard of on the Android side at least.

Same here. It took four major versions (5 -> 9) for my 4S to become too slow to use.

My iPhone 6 is still perfectly useable, I don't notice any slowness with iOS 10, certainly nothing that makes me want to upgrade.

I've been really surprised how well my iPhone 4S held up. It's a losing battle against software that expects ever more resources, but it still does the things.

I'm rockin' both a 6(work phone) and a 6S(personal phone) on the latest and they're doing great.

Have you considered that it may be user error?