I like iPhones. I also thought about getting an iphone 7 instead of my zenfone 5. I think that was a mistake that i bought this phone since iphone 7 still gets updates and doesn't stutter.
iPhones do offer a very long lifespan. Especially on software side. And they have a policy that all apps should be optimized for their phones. So, it doesn't fully depend on hardware. Also, they have iOS, which is specifically optimized for each model.
-----This is unrelated part, which has comparison between asus and iphone-------
Look at Asus. Asus is one of the least model releasing companies in Android industry, it's same as apple release in one year, but still doesn't update more than 2 years. Also, my phone didn't even get a stable android 10, it was shipped with Android 8!
Asus tells "since we didn't sell millions of units, android development is harder for us". If you want to sell "millions of unit" you must offer something. And you have an advantage over other android vendors to make a difference: you release only 3 models in a year. So, give 4 years update and see how a competition you brought to the market. Still not a 6 years apple update policy, but 4 years update is very good for Android industry.
Look what Samsung made: they announced 3 years update, and it wasn't limited to their 2020 phones. 2019 phones will be getting 3 years update too.
Asus can make this easily. And instead of samsung, asus can announce this for 2018 phones, the year asus released only 5 phones.
Why 2018? Because instead of other vendors, Asus doesn't have a good image on minds, so they should prove what they said. Asus officially abandoned Zenfone 4 series, but there is still no official announcement about Zenfone 5/5Z, Max M1 and ROG Phone 1. And since we getting into 2021 in 3 months, You can prove that you really give 2+ version updates.
I want to share this comment with
@Christine_ASUS and
@Anders_ASUS because I always see them under Zenfone 5 posts. Actually, this is not a specific Zenfone 5 comment, this is for Asus in general.