With yesterday’s Galaxy Unpacked, Samsung introduced five devices and also expanded its support and promises three years of Android updates.
- Samsung launched Galaxy Note20 and Note20 Ultra: even bigger now and with S Pen
- Samsung announced Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7+ with 5G and 120Hz panels
- Samsung Galaxy Watch3 announced: The rotating bezel is back
- Samsung Galaxy Buds Live: The new true wireless headphones with active noise cancellation
- Samsung announced its new foldable phone: Galaxy Z Fold 2
The current situation of update frequency in Android phones is not good, not good at all
Updates for Android are critical when it comes to improving security, supporting new technologies, adding new features and in general, improving the operating system and extending the useful life of mid-range smartphones that represent a great investment.
The support of Google’s partners in this section is frankly improvable and does not resist comparison with what Apple offers for iPhones and which is a part of its success. As a general rule, because there are honorable exceptions, Android updates are late, usually long after Google delivers the code or worse, they don’t.
This increases the fragmentation of the platform and increases the suspicions that the manufacturers plan a type of technological obsolescence via software, leaving terminals “thrown away” that by hardware could operate considerably longer.
Of course they want to sell more new units. But this ‘updatelessness’ causes a very negative experience among users and thank goodness that many of us have been using alternative ROMs for a decade.
Samsung promised three years of Android updates
Google is aware of the problem and has long pushed its partners to improve the picture. In addition, it has powered Project Treble to help device manufacturers release operating system updates more quickly and effectively. That is why the announcement by Samsung yesterday at Galaxy Unpacked event is very important.
Samsung said they are “reiterating its commitment to provide continuous updates for the operating system of its smartphones.”
In this way, Samsung is committed to delivering three generations of the Android operating system (as Google does with the Pixels) and monthly security updates. To some it may seem little, but it is an advance from the current 2 years and taking into account the influence of Samsung we hope that other manufacturers will commit themselves in a similar way and even better by extending the period. Four years would be a reasonable time, although it is obvious that a $100 smartphone is not the same as one of the new folding that exceeds the $2,000 barrier.
And that’s one of the problems with the announcement. The compromise only affects the top of the Samsung range. The Galaxy Note20, Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S10 have been specifically mentioned. We hope that the measure will be extended to other inferior models of the company and that the rest of the manufacturers take note and be aware that they have to improve in the section on Android updates.
