Google is one of the market leaders when it comes to software support on Android phones. It doesn’t match Samsung’s remarkable update policy, but Pixel phones get three years of major Android updates and five years of security patches.
The affordable Google Pixel 4A got the Android 13 update faster than most competitors and will continue receiving security patches. This is fantastic software support, but Google does not hold the software update throne in 2023.
The reason for that is Samsung’s update policy, and Samsung promises 4 years of major software updates and 5 years of security updates. Every Samsung flagship that has a launch year of 2021 and up will get 4 years of software updates.
More recently, Samsung is extending this policy even to their mid-range smartphones. Their 200 USD phones get four years of major Android updates, giving Google a bad look. Google gets only three years of major Android updates, and they’re the makers and developers of Android. Since Samsung took the initiative to push more software updates, other brands had to follow suit to keep up. We saw this happen with Oppo, OnePlus, and Xiaomi.
According to a new report from 9To5 Google, Google isn’t just trying to match Samsung’s update promise; they’re probably trying to surpass it completely. The report claims that Google will offer five full years of major Android updates for the Pixel 8 series.
This is much more than the software support of any Android phone on the market. It’s even better than Samsung’s update promise. Considering that Pixel phones launch with the latest Android version of the year out of the box, we’re looking at major Android updates up to Android 19 for the Pixel 8 series!
That’s two complete updates more than the Galaxy S23 lineup, which will only get major updates until Android 17. Google phones get software updates on day one and typically have the fastest monthly security patches.
You’ll normally see claims that Google matches Samsung’s policy since Pixels launch with the latest Android version out of the box. However, this logic has flowed since the Pixel several months later and gets only three years of major updates. Google launches with the latest Android and potentially provides 5 years of support. This is as good, if not better than Apple’s software support.
Apple does not have an open software update commitment, but they typically provide anywhere between five and six years of major software updates and security patches for even longer. For more context, the iPhone 6S from 2015 still gets occasional critical security updates.
Cost reasons aside, this is one of the key reasons that Google makes its own chips in-house. Despite being heavily based on existing Exynos, Google can have much more granular control over software support. This isn’t possible with Qualcomm since they probably have extra royalty for this, and this isn’t worth it for the company.
There’s no word now on whether older Tensor phones like the Pixel 6 and 7 line will get the same commitment for five years, and we have to wait for the launch to find out. Pixel 8 is shaping up to be a major upgrade, with a better and brighter screen, a new 4nm Samsung-fab Tensor G3, a nearly 1” size camera sensor, and more. There are rumors of a thermometer on the rear, too.
