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Three years ago, Samsung launched the Galaxy Fold to open up a whole new category for smartphones. Foldable smartphones have come a long way since then. Sadly, this also means the original fold is nearing the end of its life. Having received monthly security updates all this while, the company has demoted the first-gen foldable to quarterly updates. Both the 4G LTE and 5G models will now receive security updates less frequently.
Samsung’s original Galaxy Fold will now get quarterly security updates
Samsung has a dedicated website where it lists all Android devices that it is actively supporting. The company has three groups of devices: those receiving monthly updates, quarterly updates, and bi-annual updates. As you can see here, the Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Fold 5G are listed under the quarterly group. Along with all other models in this group, these two devices will receive security updates once every three months going forward.
This isn’t surprising, though. Samsung promises three years of monthly security updates to its flagship models and it did offer that support to the Galaxy Fold. Announced in February 2019, the phone didn’t arrive in the market until September of that year. Its market debut was delayed multiple times due to various problems, but that’s a different story. The point is, the Galaxy Fold duo completed three years in the market in September of this year. Samsung has now expectedly demoted them to quarterly updates.
Going forward, The Galaxy Fold and Galaxy Fold 5G will get quarterly security updates. Those updates will come until at least September 2023. After that, it’ll be time to say goodbye to the first-ever globally available foldable smartphone. Samsung may push a few more security releases to the devices, but it will drop official support for them. If you’re using the phone, you should upgrade to a newer model to stay protected from newly discovered privacy and security vulnerabilities. Newer models get monthly security updates.
The first-ever Samsung foldable will not get the Android 13 update
Earlier this year, Samsung announced that its recent and upcoming flagships and select mid-range models will get four generations of Android OS upgrades and five years of security updates. Unfortunately, the original Galaxy Fold isn’t eligible for this extended support. And that means it will not get Android 13. Debuted with Android 9 Pie, the foldable received three major Android OS updates — Android 10, Android 11, and Android 12. It will end its life on Android 12.