Pixel 6 Pro supports drops in Oct 2026

Questions
21

I meant not working as in from a smartphone usage POV. Sure, you can also use it as those things or even a literal paperweight.

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22

Good one, lol

23

You don’t have to throw it away. You could set an 80% charging cap and turn it into a 24/7 low power BOINC machine for example without much security risk at all.

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24

I didn’t know about BOINC. That might be a good idea to still give some purpose to my old device :slightly_smiling_face:

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25

This isn’t a threat model. That’s not entirely relevant to this post in particular, but it would be helpful for you to actually create a threat model regardless.

If it helps, you can consider it to be paying $50/year or under $5/month for the peace of mind that you are using a secure device. I also think you’d be surprised, there have been some subtle improvements made over the years which I think make a small but noticeable difference for the better.

I agree with the consensus on a 9a or 10a. If you’re in the US the 9a might be better if you want the option to use a physical SIM as the 10th gen pixels have shifted towards eSIM only (except the Fold). May not be an issue for you but worth keeping in mind for a device you want to get the full 6-7 years of life out of.

26

I will look into a proper threat model.

I wasnt aware that the pixel 10 are esim only, but my provider offers that. So that’s not an issue.

Thanks for all the good advice. I am amazed with the number of replies I got in just a day!

27

It’s quite a downgrade going from a Pro to an A-series device. I’d recommend picking the base model from as newer a generation as you can afford. A vanilla 10, or even a 9, will still be a great phone 10 months from now. The 9 will have five years of support left (same as your Pixel 6 Pro when you bought it) and will be next to dirt cheap.

28

Only in the US

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29

If you live in a country where a Googled Android device is increasingly necessary for banking 2FA or other similar activities, keep the old phone and switch it back to the stock OS. That phone can just stay home powered off most of the time.

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30

It’s a rather inexplicable decision. How much money does Google save by omitting the SIM tray? When my 9a is due for replacement, I will source a Pixel from Canada or some other place just because I want the SIM tray. It’s incredibly convenient if you need to quickly switch devices for one reason or another and don’t want to involve the carrier.

31

You should be able to quickly switch phones using eSIM Quick Transfer without dealing with your carrier. Removing the SIM slot makes the frame stronger, removes an ingress point for liquid, allows much more room for battery, and stops people from being able to steal your SIM card out of your phone.

32

I would agree with this

Just because support ends, does not mean your phone is immediately a virus vector 1 day afterwords. Your risk of vulnerability over time increases, but it’s not 0/1. If you feel it’s safe enough to hold out for the latest pixel, that would seem to balance some level of risk with getting a newer phone with longer support.

Since it is GoS, I would suspect it’s secure enough to carry you until then. Consider your threat model here however.

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33

I would argue that to a significant extent it is 0/1. The moment your device stops receiving security updates, there is a growing public list of vulnerabilities which you are vulnerable to. It’s really a question of when, not if, serious vulnerabilities are discovered. As recently as November, there was a critical zero-click RCE vulnerability that was discovered and patched.

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34

I am not sure this is widely available, it may be carrier-specific.

If your phone is capable, Transfer SIM from another phone should appear as an option

I can’t find this on my Graphene Pixel.

35

It’s not 1 day after the last update, but about 30 days later (when the next security update for non-EOL devices is released). At this point there are publicly known and documented vulnerabilities (n-day exploits) for your phone.

To put things into perspective, mass market android based phones lack most hardware security features of Pixels and many software security features of GrapheneOS, while also being woefully behind on major OS updates (1-3 Android versions) and security updates (many months and often only ship partial updates).

A 2 month EOL GrapheneOS device still compares more favorable to such mass market phones. Nonetheless if you value privacy and security and take it seriously, you should get a new Pixel up and running before you miss a single update.

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