The rising cost of living has caused some to hold on to their phones longer than ever. Along with the constant rise in phone prices, we buy phones less often, but expect a longer lifespan of hardware and software.
The Samsung Galaxy S24 and Google Pixel 8 series addressed the software side by providing a support cycle seven years of OS updates. This extended software support seems attractive at first glance, but I’m not so sure. Instead, I feel that the promise of longevity through constant updates is just another marketing ploy to convince you to buy an expensive flagship device.
Call me cynical, but keeping a phone for seven years and expecting it to work flawlessly seems unrealistic. Even if software is updated, outdated hardware will struggle with the growing complexity and demands of modern applications. If you want your phone for more than light use, this could be a problem.
Moreover, older hardware may miss new features implemented in future software updates. For example, a seven-year-old Google Pixel 2 it doesn’t have 5G support, and older Samsung devices may not run the latest Galaxy AI features.
Extended OS support got me thinking about what it would be like to use my hopelessly outdated one Samsung Galaxy S8 from seven years ago today. It’s not that it was a bad phone, it’s just that technology has advanced rapidly over the past few years, especially in processor, battery and camera technology, and many devices start to feel sluggish and old long before their software support period ends.
Instead of going back to a seven-year-old device and pulling my hair out waiting for it to load, I switched to my relatively newer and more capable four-year-old Samsung Galaxy S20 let’s see if it can still hold its own among the latest smartphones.
So, I reluctantly removed my SIM card from my high-end device OnePlus 12 and put it back in my old Galaxy S20, going back to 2020.
To shape
The first thing that struck me about the Samsung Galaxy S20 is how compact and light it is compared to many modern phones. I’m also a big fan of the curved design that’s largely been replaced by thicker, flat bodies in many recent flagships.
The compact size feels so comfortable and much more pocket-friendly than many phones today, except for the basic iPhone 15. However, this more compact design comes at the cost of a smaller screen, which makes watching movies and videos and playing games a little difficult, but not impossible.
On the second day of using the Galaxy S20, I accidentally dropped it in the sink. Fortunately, I found it to be more water resistant than my OnePlus 12, with an IP68 rating compared to IP65 on that device, which means I can honestly say “they don’t make them like they used to”.
Display
The screen on the Galaxy S20 carries the best of its modern contemporary. The 6.2-inch AMOLED display supports HDR10+, a fast 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1200 nits, which is respectable even four years later.
It’s also a pixel powerhouse due to its high resolution of 1440 x 3200, making it better than its successors, the Galaxy S21, S22 and even the S23. It’s even a bit higher resolution than my OnePlus 12’s 1440 x 3168; it’s really incredibly sharp.
Samsung is known for its vivid displays, and the Galaxy S20 is no exception, offering rich, saturated colors. However, gameplay was a bit cramped and less responsive on this screen, leading to more than a few untimely deaths.
Performances and games
The Galaxy S20 uses a Samsung Exynos 990 processor and I had low expectations for this older chip. I needn’t have worried: it was much faster than I anticipated, with most apps loading quickly and responding quickly.
It could run demanding games like COD Mobile and Genshin Impact on medium to high settings, albeit with a few issues. For example, I noticed the odd stutter and it just couldn’t seem to maintain high performance. The phone also got noticeably warm while playing games, and despite the battery draining very quickly, I was too worried about plugging it in while gaming because of the heat build-up.
The performance of the Galaxy S20 is confirmed by the benchmark software. It got a decent score of 1260 for single-core processing and 3287 for multi-core processing, beating out newer mid-range models like the Google Pixel 7a and Samsung Galaxy A54.
My Galaxy S20 came with 8GB of RAM, but that can be increased with an additional 8GB of virtual RAM, another feature I assumed was a recent development but was glad to see included. This allows you to run multiple apps in the background at the same time.
However, the version I used only had 128GB of storage, which seems small until you consider that it comes with expandable storage via a microSD slot. This feature is almost extinct in modern smartphones and certainly does not appear in flagship phones these days. I had forgotten how easy microSD slots made it to transfer files like photos and music to and from my computer, and I wish this feature would return to premium phones.
Camera
The S20’s camera system isn’t much to look at; the phone’s compact size means it has to use smaller sensors than some modern camera modules. However, it still has a triple camera system, consisting of a 12MP main, a 12MP ultra-wide and a 64MP telephoto.
It was decent enough in use – but not a patch on the best camera phones available today. Like chipsets, cameras have evolved incredibly quickly over the past five years, so while the Galaxy S20 still captures sharp, high-quality images in ideal lighting conditions, it lacks some modern features that I take for granted.
One of the modern features I missed the most was the periscope zoom from my OnePlus 12; The S20’s 64MP telephoto loses image quality as soon as you get a little more than three times the zoom. Its low-light performance wasn’t nearly as clear or detailed as some modern phones, and it was also harder to capture images with nicely blurred backgrounds.
Colors were inconsistent, sometimes looking quite bright, but other items looking dull. Neither seemed as accurate as the one on the newer Google Pixel or the OnePlus 12. Oh, and dynamic range was a bit more limited than with my OnePlus 12, with some details being highlighted in bright areas or lost in dark corners.
Battery
The S20’s 4,000mAh battery can’t compete with the latest phones, which generally hold more capacity and support faster charging, usually aided by much more efficient hardware.
However, the Galaxy S20 lasted almost the entire day I was using it, as long as I wasn’t playing intense games, watching a lot of videos, or trying to do something fun. Otherwise, it fell below 5 hours. It supports 24W wired charging, which isn’t great – but then again, the iPhone 15 only gets 20W charging, so that’s not terrible either.
One big difference I noticed was that the Galaxy S20 took over an hour to charge, which seems way too long in these cases. On the other hand, I may have been spoiled by the OnePlus 12’s fast charging, which is truly amazing; that phone takes only 26 minutes to fully charge.
Admit defeat?
So, did my time with the Samsung Galaxy S20 prove my point that older hardware will never stand the test of time and is worthy of continued software support? Well, yes and no.
First, the good: the S20 is an exceptional phone with hardware that has held up much better than I expected.
However, it still has some underlying issues related to its age that the slick design and exceptional screen couldn’t overlook for me. For example, it has a less efficient chipset, weaker battery and slower charging, and mixed photo quality. These flaws made it difficult for me to rely on it for day-to-day use, and in the end I was relieved to go back to my OnePlus 12.
The fact is, I wouldn’t keep it as my daily driver even if this model was supported for another three years. What’s more, I suspect most phones won’t age as gracefully as the four-year-old Galaxy S20. And in three years it will indeed be an anachronism.
So while I don’t think long software support commitments are bad in and of themselves, I really don’t see the Pixel 8 Pro and Galaxy S24 Ultra keeping up well into 2031, and I guess I’ll be eyeing the Pixel 15 or Galaxy until then S31.