Samsung drops four Galaxy A smartphones from quarterly security updates

What you need to know

• Four Galaxy A-series phones have been demoted to biannual security updates.
• The phones include the well-received Galaxy A50s.
• The devices are expected to continue receiving updates until 2023.

Samsung has been spotted transitioning a few of its phones in its update schedule from quarterly security updates to biannual ones. The change affects the Galaxy A50s as well as a few more A-series devices that were released in 2019.

The move was spotted by SamMobile and signals waning support for the devices two years after their release.

Samsung announced that it would support devices released from 2019 onwards with up to four years of security updates, meaning that the devices, including the Galaxy A20s, A30s, and A70s, still have a couple of years remaining.

That said, OS upgrades are a different story. When Samsung announced that it was providing devices with three years of OS upgrades, these A-series devices weren't among the supported devices, meaning they shouldn't expect to receive any meaningful feature updates.

Still, while these devices will only receive security updates twice a year, it's good to know that Samsung continues to stick to its commitment to supporting phones like the Galaxy A50s.

As our Jerry Hildenbrand noted when Samsung made the announcement, fours years of security updates makes owning a phone well worth the price you pay for it, particularly when it comes to the best budget Android phones. It also reduces the amount of e-waste from users disposing of phones sooner rather than later. Fortunately, other companies are following suit, like Xiaomi, which is also providing four years of security updates for some devices.

Android Police notes that some devices have been eradicated from Samsung's update schedule, including the Galaxy A2 Core, J4 Core, J7+, Tab E 8 Refresh, and Galaxy View 2.