Rather a lot was introduced on the Samsung Unpacked occasion, however amid all of the thrilling machine reveals, one element might have gone unnoticed: the tech big is committing to updating its flagship phones, like the brand new Samsung Galaxy Note 20 line, with three years of Android updates and safety patches.
Samsung beforehand assured as much as two years of updates and safety patches, so this extension places it in line with Google, which guarantees three years of each for its Pixel phones.
This implies the brand new Note 20 line and the Galaxy S20 collection will launch with Android 10 and get upgraded to Android 11 when it’s launched later this year, and get upgrades to Android 12 subsequent year and Android 13 in 2022.
Better nonetheless, Samsung is extending the three-year dedication to last year’s Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy S10 phones, which each launched with Android 9 and will thus get assured updates via Android 12 in 2021.
Three years of Android are good, however not iOS degree
Android nonetheless has a methods to go earlier than it catches as much as the prolonged assist iOS gives its older units – as an illustration, 2015’s iPhone 6s will probably be getting upgraded to iOS 14 when it launches later this year.
Samsung increasing its dedication to a few years is nice precedent, particularly if different non-Google phone makers observe swimsuit, since every model makes its personal choices about how lengthy it helps units. This isn’t only for phones to get enjoyable new features, both, because the safety updates defend handset house owners from exploits that could compromise their units and data.
The subsequent factor non-Google Android phones have to work on is dashing up the timeline when upgrading to the newest model. Whereas the Google Pixel phones may improve to Android 10 when it launched on September 3, 2019, Samsung’s flagships began getting the brand new model on the finish of November – in Germany, no less than. The remainder of Samsung’s lineup has up to date in piecemeal style between completely different carriers and throughout areas, with the pandemic even delaying updates in India a number of months till the end of May.
It’s unclear if this new dedication from Samsung will have an effect on how lengthy it is going to take to improve to the most recent model of Android. Till we all know extra, we’ve got to imagine Samsung stays in Apple’s shadow in that respect, since all compatible iPhones might be up to date the day a brand new iOS comes out.