The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 launch event had plenty of notable releases and a surprise announcement on the side. The Korean tech giant confirmed lengthier commitment for software updates for its devices, meaning that newer Samsung phones will get Android updates for longer.
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This will apply to newer Samsung devices only including the S10 series, the Galaxy Note 10 series, the Galaxy A51 series, the Galaxy Tab S6 lineup and upwards, and all of Samsung’s foldable devices. These phones will now get three years of Android updates instead of two, which means that newer phones such as Galaxy Note 20 will get up to Android 13.
This is major news for Android OEMs as they have stuck with two-year Android updates since forever. OnePlus is one exception that has stretched beyond the two-year mark, which is evidenced by the four-year-old OnePlus 3 getting the Android 9 update and OnePlus 5 getting Android 10 recently.
Motorola has been a disappointing example in this case as the Edge Plus was guaranteed only a one year update. The company was forced to change back to 2-year updates once media and consumer pressure started to mount.
Samsung’s move to introduce 3-year updates instead of two is likely to compel other OEMs to follow suit as this proves that companies are easily able to do support updates on not just flagships, but with mid-range phones as well.
