Samsung now offers four years of security updates to Galaxy phones and tablets

Updates are one of the biggest problems facing the Android ecosystem, as some devices are abandoned far before their time, and others are delayed for months. Samsung has done an excellent job in improving both the speed and frequency of its updates, and over the past year it has also been expanding the length of support. Today, Samsung is announcing a full additional year of security updates for every Galaxy device released since 2019.

In a blog post today, Samsung revealed that all Galaxy smartphones and tablets will receive security updates for a minimum of four years after their release, and the policy extends to devices as far back as 2019. This change of policy guarantees that more Samsung devices will get security updates in the fourth year of their life. Samsung previously announced three years’ worth of major system updates for all of its phones and tablets last year.

Over the past decade, Samsung has made significant progress in streamlining and speeding up its regular security updates. Samsung worked closely with its OS and chipset partners, as well as over 200 carriers around the world to ensure that billions of Galaxy devices receive timely security patches. Samsung remains committed to offering security updates as quickly as possible to always stay one step ahead and keep its users safe.

For the first two years, Samsung provides devices with monthly security updates (pending delays by carrier partners and may vary by device), and then devices are dropped down to quarterly updates. Samsung publicly lists this information on a website. During this added fourth year, Samsung will be providing “regular” security updates, meaning they could only occur once or twice during that year.

Still, that’s better than nothing. Google, for instance, cuts off support for Pixels entirely after three years, leaving those devices without any promised security or system updates. Most other Android OEMs promise only two years, and often don’t live up to that. Notably, Samsung has had this four-year policy in place for Enterprise devices for over a year.

This updated policy for Samsung applies to over 40 devices going back to the Galaxy S10 and Note 10, as well as Galaxy A, Z, XCover, and Note devices. The full list includes:

More on Samsung:

• Samsung apparently has another Galaxy Watch for 2021; it might run Android instead of Tizen
• One UI 3.0/3.1: Top new features for Galaxy devices [Video]
• Samsung concept videos leak ‘Glasses Lite’ and ‘Next Wearable Computing’ AR vision

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