In February 2022, Samsung began promising up to four generations of Android OS and One UI upgrades, as well as “up to five years of security updates” for “select” Galaxy devices. And in January, it announced a move to seven years of security and OS updates, in line with Google’s move. However, the Fold 2 was not included in Samsung’s list of “selected” Galaxy devices.
Therefore, we can speculate that the Fold 2 may stop receiving OS and security updates by 2024, four years after its debut. But it still doesn’t make sense to pay a four-figure sum for a cell phone that was otherwise working fine but now presents a security risk four years later. In response, Apple currently promises at least five years of security updates. Apple began delivering on that promise in 2023 with the iPhone 15 series. However, the current generation of iOS 18 is supported not only on iPhones released in 2020, such as the second-generation iPhone SE, but also on older iPhones, such as the iPhone XR, released in 2018. Perhaps an expensive device like the Fold 2 will be short-lived. That’s one reason some activists are calling on the FTC to require smart device packaging to specify when they will receive updates.
However, unlike the iPhone, Samsung’s phones don’t all have proprietary chips, so any promise of an upgrade will require a commitment from a third-party vendor like Qualcomm. Qualcomm has historically been known for being resistant to long chip lifecycles, so the seven-year update is a step forward not only for those who invested in the Z Fold 2, but also for Samsung users.
