How Many Years of Updates Does Each Brand Promise? (2026)

How long a phone keeps getting updates is decided almost entirely by who made it — and in 2026 the gap between the best and worst brands is enormous, running from eight years at the top to barely two at the bottom. But before the table, the single most important warning: the promise depends on the exact model, not the logo. A 2025 Samsung flagship is supported into 2032; a 2021 Samsung is already dead. So treat the brand as a starting point, then check the specific phone.

These figures track each brand's current commitment for new phones. The number that matters most is the security window, so that's what we lead with.

The leaders: 7–8 years

• Fairphone — the outright champion, officially committing to 8 years of security support (the Fairphone 6 runs to 2033), aiming for up to ten, on a fully repairable, modular design.
• Samsung — 7 years of OS and security updates on the Galaxy S24 generation onward; even recent A-series budget phones get six.
• Google — 7 years on the Pixel 8 generation onward, and crucially the cheaper a-series (a Pixel 9a) gets the same seven as a Pixel Pro.
• Honor — joined the top tier in 2025 with 7 years of OS upgrades and security on its flagship Magic series.
• Nothing — the Phone (3) carries 7 years of security patches (with five OS upgrades), quietly matching the giants.

The strong middle: 5–6 years

• OnePlus — current flagships get four OS upgrades and 6 years of security.
• Oppo and Realme — both recently jumped their flagship tiers to 6 years of security (Find X8 series; GT 7 series).
• Xiaomi and Vivo — flagship tiers commit to 5 years of security; lower tiers get noticeably less.
• Asus — up to 5 years of security on the ROG Phone line, though only about two OS upgrades.

The short windows: 3–4 years

• Motorola — 4 yearson Razr/Edge flagships, but budget moto g phones get far less and it's labeled an estimate, not a promise.
• Sony — about 4 years on recent Xperia flagships, trailing the mainstream leaders.
• Nubia and several others sit around three years in practice, without a firm numeric pledge.

The budget brands: short and often unstated

Nokia/HMD, TCL, ZTE, itel, and Catgenerally publish no firm commitment and deliver roughly one to three years of patches, tiered by model. These can still be sensible buys if you're replacing the phone soon — but they age out of safety fast, so check the exact figure.

Apple: the one that publishes nothing

Apple is the odd one out: it publishes no policy years at all. Its only written commitment is a five-year legal minimum, but its track record is about 7 yearsin practice (the iPhone 6s and XS each passed seven). Because there's no promise to quote, we model every iPhone at release + 7 years and clearly label it an estimate.

The takeaway

Use the brand to narrow the field, then verify the model. A long-promising brand with an old phone can be worse than a mid-tier brand with a new one. To skip the guesswork entirely, see the longest-supported phones ranking, or read our data-driven State of Phone Software Support 2026report for how these promises play out across the whole market. And if it's specifically Android-vs-iPhone you're weighing, our 2026 head-to-head goes deeper.

Why the promise and the delivery are different things

Every figure above is what a manufacturer has committed to in writing. That is the right thing to shop on, but it is worth understanding what the promise does and does not guarantee.

It does not guarantee a cadence.A phone can be fully “in support” while receiving patches quarterly rather than monthly. In practice that means a vulnerability published in January may not reach your phone until April. Flagships from Google and Samsung are typically monthly; most mid-range and budget devices across every brand are quarterly.

It does not always apply to every model in a family. Brands frequently announce a headline policy alongside a flagship and then apply something shorter further down the range. This is why we record a specific date per phone rather than a policy per brand.

It counts from launch, not from your purchase. A five-year promise on a phone released two years ago is three years to you. Every date on this site is absolute for exactly this reason.

What changed the market

Android update commitments were stuck at two or three years for most of the last decade. Two things moved them. Google committed to seven years with the Pixel 8 in 2023 and Samsung matched it with the Galaxy S24, which reset expectations at the top of the market. And regulation arrived: the EU ecodesign rules that took effect in June 2025 require phones sold in the bloc to receive security updates for at least five years after the model leaves the market, alongside spare-part availability requirements.

The regulatory floor is why several brands that previously offered two or three years now advertise five or six. It is worth knowing that a five-year commitment from a brand that never offered one before may be compliance rather than conviction — the deadline is met, but the delivery track record does not exist yet.

How to check a specific phone rather than a brand

Brand policies are a useful shortlist tool and a poor final answer, because the phone in front of you may predate the current policy. A 2022 Samsung is on the old four-upgrade regime, not the new seven-year one, even though both say “Samsung” on the back.

Look up the actual model on our Longevity Tracker, which records a dated end-of-support figure and links the manufacturer document it came from for every phone we cover. If you are choosing between several, the longest-supported list ranks them directly, and dying soon shows what to avoid.