After four years, Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge will stop getting updates

The 2016 flagships were removed from Samsung's list of phones that are expected to receive quarterly updates. As SamMobile reports, both the S7 and S7 edge got the March 2020 security patch and may still receive the occasional, minor security-based update.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 edge came out in 2016 running Android 6, which was updated to Android 7 the next year, and finally Android 8 in mid-2018, while smaller security patches were rolling out consistently.

The South Korean giant has been fairly unreliable with software updates at the dismay of many users lately. Although the 2019 flagship smartphones Galaxy S10 and Note 10 recently got a One UI 2.1 update, that comes with some great new features such as Quick Share, an Apple AirDrop alternative, and a Pro video mode, not all Samsung users were as lucky.

We recently reported on a message sent to users through the Samsung Members app, apparently confirming that the mid-2018 Galaxy Note 9 and S9 are not planned to get the aforementioned update despite being less than two years old.

Currently, on the Android side, popular manufacturers that are likely to provide a long-term update schedule are Google with its Pixel phones, promising at least 3 years of updates since launch, and OnePlus, considered second-best.

Of course there are plenty of overlooked factors on whether or not a smartphone model will be updated for long. It likely depends on how well that particular model sold, and if it's worth it for the company to invest more resources in it, by providing the updates.

And with Samsung already having plenty of upcoming both budget and flagship smartphones to focus on, we're hopeful that the ones which are no longer receiving major updates will still be getting the occasional security patch.