Smartphone security updates don’t last forever. We all know that sooner or later, our respective OEMs will tell us that they will stop updating it in a couple of years after a model is released. Samsung has now announced that 3 of their mid-range smartphones that they released in 2016 will not be getting security updates anymore: Galaxy A3, Galaxy J1, and Galaxy J3. While that’s not surprising, what is strange is that they will only give quarterly security updates to three somewhat new models: the Galaxy A8+ (2018), the Galaxy J2 (2018), and the Galaxy Tab Active 2.
Normally, devices receive up to three years of security patches, just like what Google does with their own Nexus and Pixel devices. But with Samsung, we’ve come to expect only up until two years, so it’s really not surprising that they will be discontinuing the security updates to the three devices that were released back in 2016. Owners of the smartphones will probably just get newer models or just be content with not getting any updates if they want to keep the current ones.
What’s a bit surprising is the relegation of quarterly security updates to the three devices. The Galaxy A8 (2018), which was released last December, has been added to the monthly list, but the variant with the higher specs, the Galaxy A8+ (2018) has been relegated to the quarterly updates section. The Galaxy J2 (2018) and the Galaxy Tab Active 2, even though they have lower specs and are less expensive, will also just get quarterly updates instead of the monthly ones accorded to newer devices.
The Android Security Updates page of the Samsung website has been updated to reflect these new changes. What we don’t see yet is the addition of the new flagships, the Galaxy S9 and the Galaxy S9+, which will, of course, be in the monthly updates section.
VIA: Android Police
