How long phones get software updates, and why it matters

Every specification on a phone page describes hardware. The characteristic that most determines how long the phone remains sensible to use is not there: how long the manufacturer will keep sending it software updates.

Two different updates

Operating system updates move the phone to a new major Android or iOS version. They bring features, and they occasionally slow older hardware.

Security updates patch vulnerabilities without changing the version. These are the ones that matter. A phone that stops receiving security patches accumulates known, publicly documented vulnerabilities that will never be fixed, on a device holding your email, your messages, and often your banking.

Manufacturers frequently commit to different periods for each — five years of security patches with three of OS updates, for instance. Read both numbers.

Why the gap between brands is enormous

Apple controls its own silicon and operating system, and has historically supported iPhones with major updates for five or more years. It does not publish this as a binding commitment, which is why we do not print a number on our iPhone pages.

Google publishes multi-year commitments for recent Pixel generations that are the strongest in the Android world, and Pixels receive Android releases on the day Google ships them with no manufacturer or carrier delay.

Samsung publishes strong commitments on flagship models. Chinese-market brands vary considerably, often with shorter windows and slower delivery. Smaller manufacturers publish shorter commitments and carry the additional question of whether the company will still be in the phone business at the end of them.

The trap: policies are per-line, not per-brand

This catches people constantly. A manufacturer's flagship update policy does not apply to its budget line. A brand advertising seven years of updates on its flagship may offer two on its mid-range phone, and the marketing rarely makes that prominent.

Check the policy for the exact model you are buying, on the manufacturer's own support pages. Not the brand. Not the series. The model.

Why Android updates are slow when they are not Pixels

Google releases Android, then each manufacturer adapts it to their hardware and adds their software layer — One UI, HyperOS, ColorOS, OxygenOS. Carrier-locked phones may add another approval stage.

This is why a Pixel gets an Android release immediately and another phone gets it months later, and why the same phone can update at different times in different countries. It is also why heavily customised skins tend to correlate with slower updates: there is simply more work between release and delivery.

What it costs you in practice

Consider two phones at similar prices, one with two years of updates remaining and one with six. The second is usable for years longer, holds resale value better, and stays safe to do banking on. Spread over the life of the device, a more expensive phone with a longer commitment is frequently the cheaper one.

This is the strongest argument for buying a flagship from a manufacturer with a published, long commitment over a mid-range phone with better paper specifications. The mid-range phone wins the comparison table and loses the four-year ownership.

Buying used or old stock

The update clock starts at the phone's release, not at your purchase. A phone released three years ago with a five-year commitment has two years left, however new the box looks. Retailers discounting older models rarely mention this, and it is the main reason a heavily discounted older flagship can be a worse deal than it appears.

How to check before buying

Go to the manufacturer's official support or security page and find the specific model. Look for both the OS and the security commitment, expressed as a number of years from release or as an end date. Note the release date and do the arithmetic.

When support ends, what actually happens

The phone does not stop working. It keeps making calls, running the apps already on it, and taking photos exactly as before. What changes is slower and less dramatic.

New vulnerabilities are discovered and never patched on your device. Applications gradually raise their minimum OS version, so some stop updating and eventually stop working — banking applications are usually among the first, because they enforce security requirements strictly. Browsers stop receiving updates, which matters because the browser is the most exposed software on the phone.

It is a slow decline rather than a cliff, which is exactly why people keep using unsupported phones without registering the risk.

Custom ROMs are not a general answer

Enthusiasts sometimes extend a phone's life with community-maintained Android builds. For a technically confident owner of a well-supported model this genuinely works. It also requires an unlockable bootloader, voids warranty in most cases, can break banking and payment applications that check device integrity, and depends on volunteers continuing to maintain a build for your exact model.

It is a real option for a small number of people and not a reason for anyone else to buy a phone with a short commitment.

We do not print update commitments on our specification pages, and that is deliberate. The numbers change, they vary by region, and some manufacturers state them as expectations rather than commitments. Printing a figure that later turns out to be wrong would be worse than sending you to the source — so we send you to the source. If a manufacturer makes that figure hard to find on its own website, treat the difficulty as an answer in itself.