You used to be able to get around two major Android updates out of Samsung phones and tabletstwo years, basically.
After that, Samsung could not guarantee that your rig would get future Android updates, but the company is now getting a bit more generous with its Android support.
At Samsungs Unpacked event earlier this month, the company announced that it was now going to give some phones and tablets a whopping three years of major Android updates.
And thats not an exactly 1,095 days since the phones launch kind of deal, rather, three full generations of Android updates.
Since then, Samsung haslaunched a blog postthat explains its policy in greater detailconfirming the generational aspect of this policy changeanddetailing which Samsung devices, specifically, are covered by its new three-year support policy.
Spoiler: Not every Samsung phone or tablet is going to get the white-glove treatment; in general, only its higher-end devices are guaranteed three years of Android updates.
The full list of phones and tablets receiving an extra generation of Android updates is:
Galaxy S series:
Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G, S20 Ultra, S20+ 5G, S20+, S20 5G, S20 in addition to S10 5G, S10+, S10, S10e, S10 Lite and upcoming S series devices
Galaxy Note series:
Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G, Note20 Ultra, Note20 5G, Note20, Note10+ 5G, Note10+, Note10 5G, Note10, Note10 Lite and upcoming Note series devices
Galaxy Foldable devices:
Galaxy Z Fold2 5G, Z Fold2, Z Flip 5G, Z Flip, Fold 5G, Fold and upcoming Z series devices
Galaxy A series:
Galaxy A71 5G, A71, A51 5G, A51, A90 5G and select upcoming A series devices
Tablets:
Galaxy Tab S7+ 5G, Tab S7+, Tab S7 5G3, Tab S7, Tab S6 5G4, Tab S6, Tab S6 Lite and upcoming Tab S series devices
In total, this means that a flagship Samsung phone should be able to get three new versions of Android from whenever it launched, as well as monthly security patches for that timeframeswitching to quarterly for the fourth year, if its standard security setup is simply bumped out a year due to this new policy.
Not bad!
Update 8/18/20, TK p.m.:We have an official list of Samsung Android phones that will receive three years of Android updates, so weve updated this post to add them in and clarify a few other facts.
