> android 8
> linux kernel 3.18

this is a joke right

Sadly that's pretty much the standards.
Many smartphones rely on hardwares, with drivers that aren't in the kernel-tree and can't be easily ported to newer versions, thus requiring the vendors to ship outdated kernels.

My work involves, among other things, providing support for Fibre Channel switches made by Brocade (now Broadcom). Their kernels are even older:

Linux version 2.6.14.2 (swrel@hq1-ub-ecbld-390) (gcc version 3.4.6) #1 Thu Sep 17 18:47:00 PDT 2015

@SomeNone please bury those machines or port the drivers forward.

PLEASE.

That's ancient even in debian terms

Isn't oreo from 2017? Don't see why you would expect a new kernel on there.

@hjk101 Android patch level is January 2019.

@Parzi those are security patches not upgrades. This is common practice with embedded systems. You don't need a shiny new kernel anyway. An optimised one for your hardware will do better. It can take a lot of effort to up the drivers to a new kernel version.