Even the best and most powerful gadgets have a finite lifespan, which is important to bear in mind while you’re using them: It’s a much better idea to try and transfer data off an old laptop before it dies completely rather than afterwards, for example.
There are actually two end-of-life dates for your pieces of tech: the date when they finally give up and stop working completely (which can be tricky to determine), and the date when manufacturers officially stop supporting them with software updates and repairs.
It’s that second, earlier date I’m going to concentrate on here. It’s easier to work out thanks to resources such as the excellent endoflife.date website, and I’ll take you through everything you need to know about gadget obsolescence.
What does “end of life” mean for a device?
Credit: Apple
It’s hard to be specific about the definition of end-of-life dates for devices, because different manufacturers have different terms that mean different things. Broadly speaking, though, it’s the point when you’re no longer going to get software updates for your gadget. What’s more, technical support and repair options will usually be closed off, too.
This isn’t the same as saying your hardware is going to stop working—at least, not right away. It’s perfectly possible to use your devices past the end-of-life dates I’m talking about here, but you need to be aware that the clock is very much ticking, and ideally you want to be investing in an upgrade as soon as possible.
Not getting software updates means you miss out in three ways: You don’t get any new features for your device; you don’t get any bug fixes; and you don’t get any security updates (though some manufacturers handle software updates and security updates separately, and keep the latter going for longer).
That means your device is going to get buggy and insecure pretty quickly—slowing down what is probably already a rather sluggish user experience. If you look at any security vulnerabilities in the news, they’ll often be quickly patched to keep users protected: If you’re on an unsupported device, you’re not getting those patches.
To make matters worse, if your device runs apps—like browsers and streaming apps on phones, for example—you’ll find updates will stop for these apps as well, because you’re on hardware that’s so old. That then compounds the problem with bugs and security vulnerabilities, making an upgrade even more urgent.
Finding end-of-life dates for your devices
Credit: Lifehacker
As I mentioned above, the endoflife.date website is one of the best resources around when it comes to figuring out when updates are going to stop for whatever devices you’ve got. The site lists 340 products at the time of writing—not just devices like phones, tablets, and smartwatches, but also operating systems and applications.
Using the site couldn’t be easier: You can click through on any of the links on the home page (such as iPhone or Android), or search for a device using the search box up at the top, or scroll down the full list of items in the list on the left. That should get you to the page you need to be on—in some cases there are pages for individual products, in others there’s a product series list.
The information shown varies between devices and applications, but for Samsung phones, for example, you’ll see the following for each handset: The release date, how long is left until “active support” ends, and how long is left for security updates. Samsung will sometimes carry on issuing essential security updates for devices after the main software updates have finished.
As comprehensive as the endoflife.date website is, it doesn’t cover everything. Manufacturer support websites are probably the next best resource for finding out about these termination points for your gadgets, while keeping up with the latest tech news (preferably on Lifehacker) is helpful here too.
Apple is one of the best in the business when it comes to letting users know when product support is ending. It maintains a full list of past products that are vintage (stopped being sold between five to seven years ago) and obsolete (stopped being sold more than seven years ago), as well as explaining what the terms mean in terms of software updates and repairs.
