// ENGADGET — MOBILE & WEB
These popular smartphones are in their last year of software support
It's good to know how long your phone will get updates before you purchase.
Picture this: it's sale season and you're browsing for a new phone. You spot one with decent specs that fits your budget, a win right now with prices on literally everything going up. You buy it feeling like you got a bargain, but months later you realize that you'll actually have to get a replacement sooner rather than later because the manufacturer is pulling the plug on its software support.
Unsurprisingly, older phone models are often the ones you'll find on sale. The siren song of a good deal is hard to resist, but that's exactly what you have to do. Before you throw your money at a phone like you're throwing confetti at a parade, you need to check its expiration date because there are loads of smartphones that are in their last year of software support. That means the phone will soon lose access to updates, and your data may become more vulnerable to newly discovered security threats.
Your smartphone probably handles your banking, your health data, work emails, and definitely all your personal conversations. So here's a question: when did your phone last receive a security update?
Most phones get those annoyingly persistent push notifications for system updates that somehow always land when you have insufficient battery or you absolutely cannot leave the phone alone for the few minutes it takes to run the update. But as annoying as these notifications are, it's bad news when they don't show up anymore. Manufacturers don't always broadcast when support is about to expire. But once a phone stops receiving updates, it also stops receiving patches for newly discovered security vulnerabilities. And then all your sensitive information could be in danger.
Many phones reach the end of software support sooner than most people expect. And when they do, it doesn't mean your phone stops working. It just means the manufacturer has stopped pushing security patches and OS upgrades to your device. Any vulnerability that gets discovered from that day forward opens up your phone to the risk of your financial and private data being stolen.
Security researchers and cybercriminals alike are constantly digging for new vulnerabilities in all sorts of software, including mobile operating systems. When vulnerabilities are discovered, manufacturers release patches. Once software support ends, newly discovered vulnerabilities may no longer be patched.
Beyond security, end of life phones get frozen in time. New Android and iOS features aren't coming. At some point, apps also stop supporting older OS versions, so you're left unable to use key tools and features.
Even if you manage the security risks and go without certain apps, aging unsupported smartphones tend to struggle with app requirements. Performance tends to degrade as apps are optimized for newer hardware and software.
Samsung's support policy varies quite a bit depending on the device tier. Galaxy devices get up to seven years for flagship models, but mid-range models will max out at five or six years, depending on model, while budget phones get up to four years of support. Here are the Samsung models that will reach end of life before the end of 2027: