Any difference between upgrading my Pixel or keeping the one I have?

operation-casserole

I have a Pixel 4a I've been using with Gservices added into Graphene since January. I wanted to "start over" with a factory reset to start using Graphene without Gservices, but was curious if I should also just upgrade my phone in that case. I am looking at a secondhand Pixel 7a I can buy in cash, but would there be any reason to do this if the 7a will also lose support eventually?

de0u

operation-casserole For a bit over a year, the project's position on the 4a has been (source):

Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL and Pixel 4a are end-of-life and shouldn't be used anymore due to lack of security patches for firmware and drivers. We provide extended support for harm reduction.

Also (source):

We provide extended support releases as a stopgap for users to transition to the far more secure current generation devices.

The newer devices have imperfections (larger, no headphone jack), but they also are much more secure. So this is probably a good time to transition to an in-support device.

matchboxbananasynergy

Your device is insecure. I highly recommend getting the 7a or any other later device as shown in our recommended devices section:

https://grapheneos.org/faq#recommended-devices

8th gen and later have security advantages, but anything on that list is recommended over an end-of-life device.

Can see until when each device will be supported here:

https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime

You'll have to replace your 7a in May 2028 which is a few years away. With newer devices having 7 years of support from launch, you should be able to get a 1-2 year old model for fairly cheap at that point and still be able to keep it for 5-6 years.