How long will Apple support the 2015 15"?

[GoldfishRT]

So - long story short after spending about 8 months trying out Windows machines and being overall impressed with some aspects of it - there are still a great many things I miss about using a Mac OS device and so I'm considering buying a 2015 15" model from Microcenter to replace the XPS 15" I've been using for the last few months (that's overall been pretty good actually). I'm not terribly concerned by the performance aspects of the machine so my only real concern is when Apple will cut support for OS updates.

Edit: Additional question - any things I should concern myself about when using an Android device with Mac OS? Any ways to get similar features between the two as you can with iOS (messages, stuff like that).

 

[AppleHaterLover]

Look, officially these machines will be supported 5 years from the date they're discontinued. So the 2015 MBP will probably be supported until 2023.

Thing is, I am not sure that all SKUs will be supported until 2023 because the ones with dGPUs and such have been discontinued long ago. I have a feeling support for those might end sooner, and support for the Iris Pro model that was just discontinued will go on.

As for Android - you should be concerned about using Android, full stop.

 

[Painter2002]

So to answer your question first, typically Apple will continue to supply updates for older laptops put to 6-7 years after the model year is released. For example, you will be able to install the newest update Mojave on MacBooks as old as 2012 (retina models). After that 6-7 years they will likely cut support, as it becomes often times the older Mac models don't have all the hardware to support the newer features.

So in your case, a 2015 model should continue to get updates through 2021 or so. Unless something drastic changes with Apple's OS releases.

Also, I am not sure how good of a deal you are getting on the 2015, but personally I would go for a 2018 model. The 2015 model is already 3 years old, and it typically isn't wise to buy hardware that is already several years old in design. A 2018 would get you more miles of usage.
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Look, officially these machines will be supported 5 years from the date they're discontinued. So the 2015 MBP will probably be supported until 2023.

Thing is, I am not sure that all SKUs will be supported until 2023 because the ones with dGPUs and such have been discontinued long ago. I have a feeling support for those might end sooner, and support for the Iris Pro model that was just discontinued will go on.

As for Android - you should be concerned about using Android, full stop.

It should be added though, that while Apple will continue support of the machines with security updates possible til 2023, they will stop allowing users to update to the newest version of OS before that. Typically it seems that the newest OS are targeting machines that are not yet discontinued.