Ron Amadeo
Samsung is upping the ante on Android updates and providing 4 years of safety updates on lots of its Android gadgets. The corporate’s full replace bundle is now three years of main OS updates and 4 years of safety updates, besting even what Google provides on the Pixel line.
Within the announcement, Samsung says, “Over the previous decade, Samsung has made vital progress in streamlining and rushing up its common safety updates. Samsung labored intently with its OS and chipset companions, in addition to over 200 carriers around the globe, to make sure that billions of Galaxy gadgets obtain well timed safety patches.” Samsung has experimented with bringing 4 years of updates to its personal Exynos SoC gadgets, however now it seems to be like the corporate is getting Qualcomm fashions on board as effectively.
Take into account that these aren’t essentially month-to-month safety updates. Samsung says it is delivering 4 years of “month-to-month or quarterly” updates, relying on the age of the system. Samsung’s present security bulletin page has the Galaxy S9 (2018) on the month-to-month replace plan, whereas the Galaxy S8 is on the quarterly plan. So it seems like three years of month-to-month safety updates and yet another 12 months of quarterly updates.
As for which telephones are getting 4 years of safety updates, the reply is “so much.” It is not simply flagships; numerous mid-range gadgets and tablets going again to 2019 are included, making for “over 130 fashions.” This is the total listing.
- Galaxy Foldable gadgets: Fold, Fold 5G, Z Fold2, Z Fold2 5G, Z Flip, Z Flip 5G
- Galaxy S collection: S10, S10+, S10e, S10 5G, S10 Lite, S20, S20 5G, S20+, S20+ 5G, S20 Extremely, S20 Extremely 5G, S20 FE, S20 FE 5G, S21 5G, S21+ 5G, S21 Extremely 5G
- Galaxy Word collection: Note10, Note10 5G, Note10+, Note10+ 5G, Note10 Lite, Note20, Note20 5G, Note20 Extremely, Note20 Extremely 5G
- Galaxy A collection: A10, A10e, A10s, A20, A20s, A30, A30s, A40, A50, A50s, A60, A70, A70s, A80, A90 5G, A11, A21, A21s, A31, A41, A51, A51 5G, A71, A71 5G, A02s, A12, A32 5G, A42 5G
- Galaxy M collection: M10s, M20, M30, M30s, M40, M11, M12, M21, M31, M31s, M51
- Galaxy XCover collection: XCover4s, XCover FieldPro, XCover Professional
- Galaxy Tab collection: Tab Energetic Professional, Tab Active3, Tab A 8 (2019), Tab A with S Pen, Tab A 8.4 (2020), Tab A7, Tab S5e, Tab S6, Tab S6 5G, Tab S6 Lite, Tab S7, Tab S7+
Samsung is providing longer Android safety updates than anybody else, however the firm remains to be one of many slower main OEMs on the subject of delivering Android OS updates. The corporate took three months to start out the Android 11 rollout, whereas Google, OnePlus, Oppo, and Xiaomi had been all sooner. Samsung nonetheless would not take part in Google’s Android beta program, which—shock—is utilized by all of the sooner corporations. Samsung additionally refuses to observe Android’s finest practices and add seamless update support, which lets customers apply all these updates with out incurring vital cellphone downtime.
Samsung’s new replace plan is the very best of any Android cellphone, however it nonetheless pales compared to Samsung’s favourite competitor, Apple. iOS nonetheless provides the very best replace plan within the business, with iOS 14 support going all the best way again to the iPhone 6S, a cellphone launched in 2015.
Google is now within the embarrassing place of not providing the very best replace plan for its personal working system, however it’s laborious to think about the corporate not shortly upping the Pixel line to match Samsung. Google is, in any case, the place the vast majority of these patches are coming from, because it’s the corporate that develops Android. The Android supply code nonetheless will get month-to-month safety updates overlaying the newest four versions of Android, going again to Android 8.1. If Google needed to, it may do three years of main updates after which 4 extra years of safety updates after that. The code is on the market.
There’s nonetheless numerous work to do, however kudos to Samsung for pushing the Android replace envelope. Android’s replace scenario is slowly getting better, one child step at a time.
