Thinking about the future (phones, plans, Android in general)

[Second Chance]

Please forgive an old fart for his first post. I've searched and not found the answers to my particular questions.

My wife and I are retired and full-time RVers. Though I did not get my first cell phone until 2008 (we had pagers in the hospitals for that - everyone else could call my land line at home), I have a background in systems and programming as a second career.

We currently have the "grandfathered" VZW prepaid plan with two phones (Galaxy S10 SM-G973U1) and an 8800L hotspot with truly unlimited data. We were forced to upgrade to these phones when apps starting telling us that they could no longer be updated and would not function on the older version of Android running on our previous phones. I am very dependent on my phone now for lots of things related to the RV and RVing. We really hit the jackpot finding these phones as they have dual SIM capability and both radios in them. We occasionally travel to Latin America and it's very convenient to put, say, an Ecuadorian GSM SIM card in the phones for $8 and have phone service while we're there. The last Android version on these phones is, and will be, Android 12.

My questions are these:

1) I have found information on how long Android 12 will be supported for security updates (extended to four years according to Samsung). What I don't know is: how long can I expect apps to update and continue to function on Android 12?

2) Questions 2 and 3 are dependent on the answer(s) to question #1... when the time comes, will we be able to activate a newer (probably 5G) phone on our existing prepaid 4G account by switching the SIM cards using the "Replace Device" function? The likes of our grandfathered plan cannot be had any more and we certainly don't want to give it up! A VZW rep said yes, but I'm prone not to trust them.

3) If "Yes" to #2, is there a good, updated replacement for our S10s with similar or better specs and features? Doing some research, I cannot find any Samsung phone later than ours that has both radios. (I guess we could always keep the S10s for overseas travel purposes, but that would mean carrying around four phones rather than two).

There is a possibility that I'm worrying prematurely and that our S10s may serve us for enough years to come that the picture will change. If that's the case, please tell me. I hope this hasn't bee too long and rambling to make sense...

PS: I am anti-Apple because of their business model and locked-down, proprietary nature of their approach to their technology.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[ocnbrze]

My questions are these:

1) I have found information on how long Android 12 will be supported for security updates (extended to four years according to Samsung). What I don't know is: how long can I expect apps to update and continue to function on Android 12?

that will depend on the developers. its really hard to say on how long they will support an app. i guess it might depend on how popular the app is.

2) Questions 2 and 3 are dependent on the answer(s) to question #1... when the time comes, will we be able to activate a newer (probably 5G) phone on our existing prepaid 4G account by switching the SIM cards using the "Replace Device" function? The likes of our grandfathered plan cannot be had any more and we certainly don't want to give it up! A VZW rep said yes, but I'm prone not to trust them.

i agree with the rep, you should be fine.

3) If "Yes" to #2, is there a good, updated replacement for our S10s with similar or better specs and features? Doing some research, I cannot find any Samsung phone later than ours that has both radios. (I guess we could always keep the S10s for overseas travel purposes, but that would mean carrying around four phones rather than two).

both radios? do you mean gsm and cdma?

There is a possibility that I'm worrying prematurely and that our S10s may serve us for enough years to come that the picture will change. If that's the case, please tell me. I hope this hasn't bee too long and rambling to make sense...

PS: I am anti-Apple because of their business model and locked-down, proprietary nature of their approach to their technology.

Thanks,

Rob

thanx to planned obsolescence most samsung phone will only get supported for about 2 or 3 major updates and then 4-5 security updates. this does not mean that the phone will stop working. but what will happen is that devs will start to move on and support newer android software and stop supporting the older os. how long this will take wil depend on the devs like i mentioned above., also battery life will start to get worse. and your phone wil;l start to get slower and slower.

the s10 came out in 2019, so by 2024 you probably will stop seeing security updates. and each after that, apps may or may not work anymore as the android os will be much older by than.

 

[svim]

......
1) I have found information on how long Android 12 will be supported for security updates (extended to four years according to Samsung). What I don't know is: how long can I expect apps to update and continue to function on Android 12?

2) Questions 2 and 3 are dependent on the answer(s) to question #1... when the time comes, will we be able to activate a newer (probably 5G) phone on our existing prepaid 4G account by switching the SIM cards using the "Replace Device" function? The likes of our grandfathered plan cannot be had any more and we certainly don't want to give it up! A VZW rep said yes, but I'm prone not to trust them.

3) If "Yes" to #2, is there a good, updated replacement for our S10s with similar or better specs and features? Doing some research, I cannot find any Samsung phone later than ours that has both radios. (I guess we could always keep the S10s for overseas travel purposes, but that would mean carrying around four phones rather than two).

There is a possibility that I'm worrying prematurely and that our S10s may serve us for enough years to come that the picture will change. If that's the case, please tell me. I hope this hasn't bee too long and rambling to make sense...

PS: I am anti-Apple because of their business model and locked-down, proprietary nature of their approach to their technology.

Thanks,

Rob

1) Most third-party developers will support their apps for a longer time period than Google (or Samsung). But that is dependent on the app as they all vary -- Mozilla will keep its Firefox app fully functional for years after Google stops support for a particular OS version but some other apps such as for financial institutions might not.
2) No, unfortunately your Galaxy S10 phones don't support 5G:
https://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_s10-9536.php
Just upgrading the SIM card won't do it. A SIM card just retains your account info with a chosen carrier. It authenticates the phone to access a carrier's cellular network. Inside your S10 there's a cellular radio chip soldered to the logic board. That's what your phone relies upon to connect to any cellular network. The SIM card is just an identifier (your user account), the cellular radio chip does the actually connecting. Basically your S10s are too dated, they were released when 5G was still being introduced.
3) There are a lot of viable choices for a new phones when the time comes to upgrade. Stick with Samsung if you like your S10 phones, and new Galaxy phones are a solid investment as far as future-proofing (you do appear to like to hang on to your phones as long as possible). But other manufacturers like OnePlus and Motorola have some good phones too at cheaper prices. (..... be wary about their long-term support though. Motorola Moto phones are nice but Motorola has a relatively dismal long term support policy)

 

[Davdi]

Hae a look an Nokia phones, some of theirs offer 3 years of Android updates and 3 years of security updates

 

[Second Chance]

Thanks, everyone. Based on the information here and elsewhere, concerns over security updates for the S10 and continued compatibility with banking apps bubbled to the top. I also found that there is, in fact, a factory unlocked version of the Galaxy S22 that has both CDMA and GSM (for our VZW network at home and Latin America travels) as well as 4G/LTE and 5G and is compatible with VZW and most other US provider networks. I found a great deal and ordered one. We will replace only my phone at this time as my wife doesn't have the banking apps (or much other than the basics) on her S10 which will continue to function as a phone for a good bit, yet. She also loves her phone and doesn't like change.

Again - thank you all for your help and timely responses.

Rob

 

[svim]

Try using Samsung's Smart Switch utility to transfer her old S10 user account data to the new S22. It's a pretty reliable tool to backup/transfer data, especially between two Samsung phones, but be sure to read through the exclusions for third-party data that might not be included (i.e. WhatsApp, which has its own backup service in the WhatsApp app.)
https://www.samsung.com/us/apps/smart-switch/
Hope your retirement into a RV life is as awesome as it sounds to be.

 

[Second Chance]

Try using Samsung's Smart Switch utility to transfer her old S10 user account data to the new S22. It's a pretty reliable tool to backup/transfer data, especially between two Samsung phones, but be sure to read through the exclusions for third-party data that might not be included (i.e. WhatsApp, which has its own backup service in the WhatsApp app.)
https://www.samsung.com/us/apps/smart-switch/
Hope your retirement into a RV life is as awesome as it sounds to be.

Thanks! I used SmartSwitch to move the accounts from our older Galaxies to the 10s - and have already backed up my 10 to get ready.

We've been doing this full-time RV lifestyle for 7-1/2 years and love it. When asked about our exit plan, we tell folks we're going to do it until we have to find a rest area to pull over and die... and watch their faces. (Of course, we do more serious planning for real.)

Rob