There’s bad news for some Galaxy owners this month with Samsung confirming that it’s dropping a bunch of devices from its monthly update programme. For those not in the know, all new Galaxy smartphones get at least three years of security patches which are pushed out on a monthly basis. This makes sure they are fully up-to-date and protected from bugs, glitches and cyber attacks. However, once that initial period has ended, Samsung then pushes most older phones to a quarterly update cycle.
That’s exactly what has just happened to the Galaxy S20 series with all of these devices now downgraded.
If you own an S20, S20+ or S20 Ultra you now won’t get patches every 30 days – instead, there will be a release every three months.
Although all these devices should remain secure to use, they won’t get the very latest releases and bug fixes that they’ve enjoyed until now.
“At Samsung, we take security and privacy issues very seriously and we are doing our best to respond as quickly as possible,” the firm said in an update on its website.
“Securing your device and maintaining the trust you place in us is our top priority. Samsung releases monthly, quarterly and biannual firmware security updates on selected Samsung devices. And select devices launched in 2019 or later will be supported with firmware security updates for a minimum of four (4) years following their global launch, while select newer devices will receive up to five (5) years of security updates.
“Monthly, quarterly and biannual firmware security updates will include patches for Android OS related security issues released by Google, as well as, patches for Samsung-specific security issues.”
Phones that will continue to get monthly updates include the S21 series, S23 Series and very latest S24 models which launched earlier this year.
FULL LIST OF PHONES NOW ON QUARTERLY UPDATES
• Galaxy Z Flip 5G, Galaxy Z Fold2
• Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 5G, Galaxy S20+, Galaxy S20+ 5G, Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G
• Galaxy A22e 5G, Galaxy A32, Galaxy A32 5G, Galaxy A52 5G
• Galaxy A13, Galaxy A13 5G, Galaxy A23, Galaxy A23 5G, Galaxy A33 5G, Galaxy A73 5G, Galaxy A35 5G
• Galaxy A04, Galaxy A04s, Galaxy A04e, Galaxy A14, Galaxy A14 5G, Galaxy A24, Galaxy A34 5G
• Galaxy A05, Galaxy A05s, Galaxy A15, Galaxy A15 5G, Galaxy A25 5G
• Galaxy M13, Galaxy M13 5G, Galaxy M23 5G, Galaxy M33 5G, Galaxy M53 5G, Galaxy M04, Galaxy M14 5G, Galaxy M34 5G, Galaxy M44 5G, Galaxy M54 5G, Galaxy M15 5G
