Last updated: October 23rd, 2024 at 22:10 UTC+02:00
Samsung has already been leading the Android OEMs in offering some of the best Android OS upgrade support. Its latest high-end devices are supported for seven years, ensuring that customers can enjoy new features for a considerable amount of time, if they don’t decide to upgrade their phone for the next seven years.
There’s a lot that needs to be aligned for Samsung to offer software support at this level. This isn’t something it can do alone, it needs to work with Google and the company that makes the chipset in the supported devices to make that happen. With its new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, Qualcomm is making it possible for OEMs to offer eight years of OS upgrades, a possibility that Samsung is likely going to pounce on.
Samsung could even make it happen with the Galaxy S25 next year
Here’s the broad strokes of how an Android OS upgrade is made possible. Google has to create and test the new builds before OEMs like Samsung take that and make their own additions. Finally, the build must go through the chipset designer like Qualcomm as that upgrade may require kernel or other changes to the software architecture on the chipset. Since that company is the only one that can make those changes, the OS upgrade won’t be possible unless it plays ball.
Chip designers like Qualcomm likely charge OEMs more for a longer and sustained software support cycle, since they know that mobile device manufacturers can’t advertise six or seven years of Android OS upgrades unless they’re sure Qualcomm would make the changes required to make that possible.
Samsung has been in a rush to lead the Android landscape in software support and it has evidently been reaching into its very deep pockets to ensure seven years of Android OS upgrades, including on its new flagships, many of which use a Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset.
Qualcomm has confirmed that the new Snapdragon 8 Elite, the chipset which will be used in the entire Galaxy S25 series, will offer eight years of support. This means that the option is available for Samsung, should it so desire, to bump up its exemplary support on flagships to eight years of Android OS upgrades.
Disclaimer: Qualcomm is hosting a large group of international media for the Snapdragon Summit 2024 from October 21-23 in Hawaii, including SamMobile. All opinions and analyses remain our own with Qualcomm receiving no advance preview or exercising any control over our coverage.