Let's take away the basics. A new Pixel, compared to an old one, equals more battery, more efficiency, more upgrades and more power; camera improvements, etc. I ask because I have a Pixel 6a and I'm happy with the cameras and battery; I know it has a few years of upgrades left and I'm no lacking the power at the moment. I was asked if I wanted to update it: is there a difference, removinc the hardware, between having a Pixel 6a and a Pixe 9 Pro XL or a Pixel 8a?
Is it worth having the last pixel?
CGAMER138 Pixel 8 and later have MTE (memory tagging, a security feature) and can connect to an external monitor over the USB-C port. But a 6a is still supported, so if you are happy with it and not subject to elevated security risks then it may be fine.
If the suggestion to upgrade is from a carrier, be sure that the "upgrade" would be to a device that can be OEM unlocked, otherwise it would not be possible to install GrapheneOS.
I would save your money and wait until the 6A reaches EOL.
CGAMER138 If I were you and happy with Px6, I wouldn't push myself to upgrade. Although you can get Pixel 8 for fair price on "EvilBay" 😅. I got mine 8pro 256gb for about £310 on eBay last month in near mint condition as well as Pixel 8a 128gb for £200 this week, also in a great condition. Used Pixel phones are, surprisingly, really cheap in my opinion. If you asked me why I have 2 Pixels.... Well, I'm not a super rich, but currently testing setups that could work for me 😎 And with 6 years support ahead I have no regrets.
- Edited
One of the downsides of buying used is not knowing what activity the device IMEI may be linked to. Should always go new.
Thank you all for the responses. So, I'd better stick with my current phone until it runs out of support and, from there, replace it with one of previous generations so I don't spend as much. Thank you all.
What do you mean here? Could you elaborate and make an example of problematic 'activity'? I thought buying used was a privacy advantage.
fph if you intend to use your device in network environment which you almost certainly do, your activity will be tracked browsing across the web or using native apps and can be inadvertedly used using various hardware, non-hardware and device performance identifiers to correlate and link to any previous activity.
Collection of certain identifiers is prevented on GrapheneOS but as dev team commented in one of their posts (which I can't locate atm), any app (or online service) can create their own set of identifiers they can use to track you and collection of which OS can do nothing about.