You used to be able to get around two major Android updates out of Samsung phones and tablets—two years, basically. After that, Samsung could not guarantee that your device would get future Android updates, but the company is now getting a bit more generous with its Android support.
At Samsung’s 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 that’s not an “exactly 1,095 days since the phone’s launch” kind of deal, rather, three full generations of Android updates.
Since then, Samsung has launched a blog post that explains its policy in greater detail—confirming the generational aspect of this policy change and detailing 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 timeframe—switching 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 we’ve updated this post to add them in and clarify a few other facts.
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