Opinion
Opinion: Samsung is doing a fantastic job with software updates
With the launching of a smartphone, its maker assures you to provide better after-sales services, but not every smartphone maker keeps its promise. One of them is Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus, who’ve forgotten its claims for best ever customer service.
A few days ago, OnePlus has informed the users of its Nord lineup smartphones users that they will get “only one major” Android upgrade. This move is surely frustrating for most of the consumers of OnePlus.
Regular software updates are too much important for our smartphones because they bring not only security patches but also includes new or enhanced features or better compatibility with different devices or applications. They can also improve the stability of your software, and remove outdated features.
While monthly software update keeps the user’s data and privacy safe from different threats, major updates improve the overall device experience and performance with the latest features and enhancements.
As a proud consumer of Samsung’s smartphones, I can confirm that Samsung is the best ever service provider among all the smartphone makers across the globe. Even, Samsung is one step forward from the stock Android because, at the end of October, it has started providing November 2020 security patch for its second-gen foldable devices.
Furthermore, this month, Samsung has gone multiple times ahead of Google toward the testing terms of monthly security patches.
In detail, nowadays, Samsung is running the beta testing of the latest version of its massive custom skin, One UI. Its latest flagship phones of S and Note lineup, Galaxy S20, and Note 20 series smartphones experiencing the beta testing of Android 11 based One UI 3.0. A few days ago, the Galaxy S20 devices have received the December 2020 security patch with the One UI 3.0 beta build.
It shows that Samsung follows its own software upgrading procedure to fix the bugs and CVEs before Google does for stock Android.
Read in detail: Samsung just released December 2020 security patch, 16 days ahead of next month
Adding to this, Samsung provides two years of monthly security update support for its flagships and two more years of quarterly security patches. While selected mid-range smartphones also eligible for monthly security patches for better security. Furthermore, some devices are still receiving security updates after five/six years of their launching like the Galaxy S6 and Note 5 devices received new updates even after the completion of its update lifecycle.
Well, the above information is only regarding security updates. If we talk about major Android OS upgrades, Samsung is committed to supporting the latest Android OS upgrades until the hardware specs allow them to provide the optimized mobile experience.
With its already impressive update policy, Samsung has extended the lifecycle of its smartphones. The company has also grown its major OS upgrade policy. Now the high-end smartphones including the Note, S, Fold/Flip, Tab S series, and select A series smartphones are listed to receive three years of latest Android upgrade support.
That’s not it because when other phone makers provide only one Android upgrade for its high-end smartphones, Samsung gives two generations of Android updates for its mid-range and budget phones.
These moves make Samsung, the best software updates provider among all the other phone manufacturers. In my opinion, Samsung, you are doing a fantastic job with software updates.
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After One UI 5.1, we started hearing a lot of news, leaks, and rumors about the upcoming One UI 6. Recently, Samsung has also started releasing One UI 6.0 support for stock apps, starting with the Calculator app.
Looking at all this, we can expect that Samsung will provide this support to more apps in the future too. But the question is, why is Samsung providing One UI 6.0 support to its stocks apps before the official release? If you are thinking that by getting their support, you will get some new features in your apps, then it is not only the reason.
Samsung One UI 6.0 support can also bring new features for apps, but the main reason for this is something else. But what? The answer is that Samsung is going to release a new One UI update in the coming weeks or months and the company aims to make its stock apps compatible with that accordingly. Once the app is supported, the app will not stop working or get crash whenever the company releases that update for the smartphone.
A recent report revealed that Samsung’s stable Android 14 update will be available in October. This is the same time frame as last year’s UI rollout, with the latest Galaxy S lineup being the first to secure it. Meanwhile, beta activity is seeing an early start if everything goes as planned by the internals.
Still, for the time being, we can consider this information as a pinch of salt as the company has not yet announced any official timeline for One UI 6.0.
Samsung confirms One UI 6 and Good Lock features finding underway
Nowadays, smartphones are being heavily used for gaming and photography. Accordingly, phone makers are focussing more and more on upgrading the imaging capabilities and performance of chipsets. So why not, Samsung should now bring battery upgrade to Galaxy flagships.
Battery upgrade should be the next aim
The recently launched Galaxy S23 Ultra brings a high-profile 200-megapixel camera, allowing users to capture lossless shots, even when cropped. With great collaboration between hardware and software, the new Samsung flagships offer peace of mind to consumers, when it comes to battery life.
In addition to camera lovers, people prefer buying a smartphone, which offers great battery life without compromising features and power specifications. In the same way, Samsung is reportedly working, and there’s still room for improvements in flagships battery life.
The Galaxy S24 Ultra could come with a new battery technology inspired by electronic vehicles. The company is considering stacked battery technology for smartphones, which will reduce the size keeping the same mAh and enhanced lifespan.
Since the stacked battery tech could leave more gap inside the phone, Samsung might not think about increasing mAh on flagship phones. Instead, the company may use an additional vacant area for upgrading other hardware elements and better placement.
The S23 Ultra even defeated the years-old leader iPhone in terms of battery performance, thanks to the “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy” processor. Exynos 2400 is reportedly coming to the S24 series in certain markets, which re-creates concern about the phone’s battery life and performance.
That said, Samsung should focus on increasing premium Galaxy phones’ battery life so users can use them longer with a single charge. 45W fast charging is doing quite well, just improvements to battery life would prove as cherry on the cake.
What do you think about it, do share your thoughts with us through the Tweet embedded below.
Vote here: https://t.co/tOfPTuWKX7
— Sammy Fans (@thesammyfans) May 5, 2023
Poll Results: May 12, 2023
We ran a poll that received 106 votes from our readers’ community. Among all, about 70 percent of readers voted in favor of a battery upgrade instead of the camera, while 23.6 percent want both upgrades together. Meanwhile, 6.6 percent of voters still want Samsung to focus on flagship camera upgrade.
Instead of Camera, Samsung should bring battery upgrade to flagships #Samsung
— Sammy Fans (@thesammyfans) May 5, 2023
Tech industry is currently facing a global downturn, forcing companies to shut down businesses in hopeless markets. Promotion no longer remains the only way to sell more smartphones as consumers start comparing products on different aspects; reliability, security and software support.
Samsung, unquestionably meets the demands of consumers, thanks to its 4+5 strategy, ensuring longer Android OS and security updates support. The company is the biggest Android seller in the world, and of course leads the market too, beating rivals like Apple.
Since the Samsung 4+5 strategy still lags behind Apple, when it comes to software support, it is record-breaking in the Android segment. As vendors stop including pre-built charging adapters to reduce e-waste, the EU also mandated longer software support so consumers can keep using a phone longer.
“At Samsung, you get not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 times Android OS updates. And 5 years is a long time, so your palm-sized pal will be in good hands with new regular security patches.”
Software updates play a key role in continuing great smartphone experiences, as well as the releases come with new features and optimization. Android is open source and gets packed with numerous flaws, Google patches them through security releases every month.
Accordingly, Samsung rolls out monthly patches to a large number of Galaxy devices, which ensures the most reliable system and user data protection. Android OS usually gets a new version in the second half of every year, bringing new useful features and life-saving tools to consumers.
Samsung, with its amazing One UI, dominated the Android market. The custom skin is neat, clean, and intuitive, ensuring smoother and more stunning experiences on Galaxy smartphones and tablets. Google introduces 1 each year, but Samsung utilizes it thrice (x.0/x.1/x.1.1), cool enough?
Until the second half of 2020, Samsung supplied two OS updates to all Galaxy devices. Later, the company raised the bar of software and reached up to 3, matching the Android maker. With the S22 launch, the Korean tech giant promised to bring up to 4 OS and 5 years of patches to select Galaxy models.