Galaxy S9 Series Demoted To Quarterly Security Update Schedule

More than three years into launch, Samsung has now demoted the Galaxy S9 series to quarterly security updates. Launched back in February 2018, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ have received monthly security updates so far, including four updates this year – one each in the first four months of the year. However, going forward, the phones will receive security updates quarterly, i.e. once every three months.

This, of course, isn’t a surprise or an unexpected development. As you might already know, Samsung has promised at least four years of security updates for most of its smartphones. For the first two years of launch, flagships and enterprise models will receive monthly updates while other low-cost devices will see quarterly updates.

However, things start to change as the devices complete two years into the market. They may receive security updates less frequently from thereon. As the devices enter the third or fourth year of their life, they will drop to the quarterly or even biannual (two security updates in a year) schedule.

Of course, the Galaxy S9 series has been receiving monthly security updates up until now. However, now that the phones have finished off their first three years in the market, they have been expectedly demoted to the quarterly cycle. The phones join the likes of the Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S8 series, as well as various other Galaxy A and Galaxy M series phones in the less-frequent security update schedule.

As said before, the Galaxy S9 and S9+ did receive the April 2021 security patch. So technically, they should receive their next security update in July 2021 and so on at least until March 2022.

Samsung drops the Galaxy S9 series to the quarterly security update schedule

Over the past few years, Samsung has made significant progress in speeding up its software updates. The company, which literally launches phones at every price-point that exists, has not just promised four years of security updates but three years of Android OS updates as well to its flagship models and select mid-rangers in the Galaxy A series.

Unfortunately, though, this generosity only extends to phones launched in 2019 and beyond. So the Galaxy S9 and S9+ are out of favor. The devices arrived in February 2018 running Android 8 Oreo. They have since received two major Android OS updates (Android 9 Pie and Android 10) and won’t receive any more. As for security updates, expect them to receive one every three months for at least another year.