Android - updates and security questions

[freebooter]

I need to buy a new phone. My current phone is a Wileyfox Swift 1 and its version of android is too old for some apps now. I have been thinking of replacing it for a couple of years now but every time I start looking into it the market seems too complicated.

A major aspect I don't understand is security and android updates. I have only ever used my phone for unimportant things where security hasn't really been an issue. However, now a lot of banks are pushing apps or some banks are purely app based. If using a phone for banking I assume I need to pay more attention to security in the same way I would accessing bank sites on my pc?

I don't want to pay a lot for a phone as my use is limited. At the more budget end of the market it seems that you are lucky to get 2-3 years of updates from phone launch so unless you buy it as soon as it is released that could only be 18 mths.

The other aspect to security is how trustworthy the companies are when it comes to some of the Chinese brands.

So far I have looked at Nokia who offer reasonable updates but the hardware is often poor compared to the competition, Motorola are a bit better on the hardware but seem to have a poor reputation for updates and then there are the Chinese brands like Xiaomi/Poco etc who offer bargain hardware but unclear updates and questions over data collection.

Other than that it is premium brands like Apple, Google and top end Samsung which are too expensive for my usage.

Am I worrying too much about security? Is a bank app on a phone vulnerable to security issues with the OS or would it be more self-contained and secure in itself?

thanks

 

[freebooter]

Thanks for the replies. I ended up getting a budget Motorola. It is a big upgrade over what I had and I am sure it will be good enough for me for a few years. I was very tempted by a Xiaomi that was on offer and would have been better hardware.

I ended up being not too worried about frequency of updates from Xiaomi but I did see some claims that they run aggressive data harvesting and this is why they can sell the phones so cheap. I just decided that I didn't want to spend too much time figuring out how to turn that off if it is possible.

I am also uneasy about having banking access reliant on something that is carried all the time and could be lost or stolen. However, phone app banking seems to be the way the sector is going and often app based banks are offering better deals. I don't understand why any bank that has an app couldn't also offer web access. I would have thought it wouldn't be much extra cost to them.

I also noticed that many bank apps are available for versions of Android that no longer have security updates? Does this mean that the banks are confident their apps are safe even on old unsupported versions of Android?

I did wonder whether to have a spare phone kept at home just for banking and similar use and another for everyday carrying use. I don't know whether tablets can run these apps or whether they need a sim installed.