Samsung’s impressive update policy may have just got better

Samsung has the best update policy in the Android space today. While a few other companies match its policy of four major Android OS updates and five years of security updates, they only cover their flagship models. The Korean firm, on the other hand, offers the same update support to some mid-range models as well. And if that wasn’t already enough for Samsung to be called the undisputed king of Android updates, it may have just upped its game.

Samsung seems to have upgraded its already impressive update policy

Samsung maintains a list of devices that are eligible for new security updates. It divides all eligible models into three update categories: monthly, quarterly, and bi-annual, with the latter meaning two updates in a year. Flagships and premium mid-range models start at monthly patches before dropping to the less-frequent categories over time. All other devices start at quarterly patches and drop to the bi-annual category after a few years.

Usually, flagship models get monthly updates for up to three years from their launch before dropping to quarterly updates. However, as you can see in the official list here, the Galaxy S20 series is still getting monthly updates. The 2020 flagships completed three years on the market in March 2023. Almost three months into the fourth year, Samsung hasn’t dropped them to the less-frequent security update category.

This suggests that Samsung has further upgraded its already impressive update policy. It appears to be offering monthly security patches to flagship models for four years. The devices may be dropped to quarter updates in the fifth year. We will have to wait one more year to find out, though. That’s because flagship Samsung phones launched before the Galaxy S20 series aren’t eligible for five years of security updates. The company has already stopped pushing new updates to the Galaxy S10 series.

On that note, when Samsung announced five years of security patches for Galaxy devices, it didn’t reveal the frequency of the updates across those five years. The company may have always intended to offer monthly updates for the first four years and quarterly updates in the final year, at least for flagship models.

We are finding it now because the Galaxy S20 series is the oldest flagship to get extended update support. When Samsung offered security updates for a total of four years, it was a 3+1 system. We will let you know if the company releases an official statement on the matter or if it demotes the Galaxy s20 series to quarterly patches in the coming months.