Which phone has the longest software support?

The ranking above orders every phone we track by promised support years and then by exact end date. Samsung and Google lead with seven-year commitments on current models, with Apple close behind on its documented track record. What matters more than the headline number is the end date itself, since a seven-year phone bought three years late has four years left, not seven.

How many years of updates should a phone get?

Five years is a reasonable minimum for a phone you intend to keep, and seven is now achievable across a wide price range. Under three years, you are buying a device you will need to replace while it is still working perfectly well, which is expensive and wasteful. The EU's new rules have begun pushing minimums upward, but they have not yet reached the level the best manufacturers offer voluntarily.

What happens when a phone stops getting updates?

It keeps working — calls, apps and the camera are unaffected. What changes is that newly discovered vulnerabilities in Android stop being fixed on your device, and those flaws become publicly documented over time. The practical advice is to move banking, payments and primary email off an unsupported phone and treat it as a secondary device rather than replacing it immediately.

Phones with the longest software support — September 2026

Data last verified 2026-06-17 · re-ranked automatically on every update

This is the ranking that defines this site: phones ordered by how long they'll stay safe to use, by promised support years and then by exact end-of-support date. Samsung and Google's seven-year promises dominate the top, Apple sits close behind on its documented (and labeled) ~seven-year track record, and everything is dated to the month so you can see precisely when each phone's clock runs out. No other spec matters if the answer to 'how long will it last?' is 'not long.' Sources are linked on every phone page; dates re-verified monthly.

How our scores work →

Security patches matter more than Android versions

Manufacturers advertise two numbers, and they are not equally important. OS upgrades bring new features and interface changes; security patches fix the vulnerabilities that make a phone unsafe to bank on. A phone running two-year-old Android but receiving current security patches is safe to use. A phone on the newest Android with patches that stopped a year ago is not. When the two numbers differ — and they usually do — the security figure is the one that defines the phone's real lifespan, and it is the one this ranking sorts on.

Official promises and estimates are different things

Some manufacturers publish binding update commitments; others do not, and the distinction is worth understanding before you rely on a date. Samsung, Google and Xiaomi publish theirs. Apple publishes no years at all, so its roughly seven-year window is an estimate from a documented track record. Tecno, Infinix and much of the budget market publish nothing, so those dates are our projections from observed behaviour. Every phone on this site is labelled accordingly, and an official window should carry considerably more weight in a buying decision than an estimated one.

Common questions

Which phone has the longest software support?: The ranking above orders every phone we track by promised support years and then by exact end date. Samsung and Google lead with seven-year commitments on current models, with Apple close behind on its documented track record. What matters more than the headline number is the end date itself, since a seven-year phone bought three years late has four years left, not seven.
How many years of updates should a phone get?: Five years is a reasonable minimum for a phone you intend to keep, and seven is now achievable across a wide price range. Under three years, you are buying a device you will need to replace while it is still working perfectly well, which is expensive and wasteful. The EU's new rules have begun pushing minimums upward, but they have not yet reached the level the best manufacturers offer voluntarily.
What happens when a phone stops getting updates?: It keeps working — calls, apps and the camera are unaffected. What changes is that newly discovered vulnerabilities in Android stop being fixed on your device, and those flaws become publicly documented over time. The practical advice is to move banking, payments and primary email off an unsupported phone and treat it as a secondary device rather than replacing it immediately.

More rankings

Best phones under $200 Best phones under $300 Best phones under $400 Best phones under $500 Best phones under $700 Best phones under $1000 Best battery phones Best compact phones Best gaming phones Best camera phones under $500 Cheapest phones to own (TrueCost)

Rankings are computed from our verified database — no sponsorships, no affiliate reshuffling. Phones with under 18 months of support left are excluded from every list. Methodology.