The simplest trick to find out if your mobile will have a good Android update policy

Most of the mobiles sold in Europe are usually updated to the latest or penultimate version of Android, but when it comes to Android updates there is still a lot of work to be done. Of course, the situation is much better than a few years ago, but manufacturers’ policies generally don’t offer update policies with all the transparency we would like.

Is it possible to know how a newly released mobile will update and when and how it will receive updates two years later? Well, there is a method that I have personally applied for years to recommend cellphones that to date has worked very well, so it doesn’t hurt to talk about it in case it might be of help when you choose a new mobile.

Will my mobile be updated correctly? This is what you should know

Updates are a very important aspect of the mobile experience because they allow the system to continue to improve over time. It is very common for friends, family or readers to ask us if the brand of the mobile they have or will buy “well updated”.

In such a large market, it is very difficult to make a general association. Whether Samsung, Xiaomi or OnePlus updates a specific mobile quickly enough is not something that serves as a benchmark, because as a rule they tend to prioritize their latest high-end mobile, while those from previous years or lower ranges decrease their priority. What matters is not the brand, but the model.

The only exception to the rule would be Google with its Pixel, the only brand that updates all of its models on the same day the update is available. If having the latest version of Android with the least amount of lag is your priority, your decision factor ends here.

Once we have chosen a model, unless the manufacturer has given us an indicative indication, we will have to do analyze the update cycle of its predecessors.

What is the reason for this reasoning? Unless there is a major make or model change, the resources the company will allocate to upgrade support should be similar. As we lower the range, this budget will be reduced, which will affect the frequency and agility of updates.

A clear example of Android updates with a mobile not yet presented

Although it is not yet on sale, let’s talk about the Samsung Galaxy A52, a mobile called to be among the big bestsellers of Samsung because of the history of its predecessors. Due to the presentation date, we can take into consideration that it will include Android 11 as standard.

We know thanks to Samsung’s new policy that this mobile should receive 3 generations of Android, so we can expect it to eventually update to Android 14.

But, When will you receive the update? To get a rough idea, we will come back to its predecessors:

The Galaxy A51, according to Samsung’s schedule, would receive Android 11 for March 2021, although this update started in February, progressing by one month. With this data, we could already get an idea that between February and March 2022 you should receive Android 12.

To know how it should continue to receive updates in the second year, one would have to see the history of the previous predecessor. The Galaxy A50 arrived with Android 9 and received its update to Android 10 during the month of April 2020. It expects to receive Android 11 sometime in May 2021. With this data, we could deduce that the Galaxy A52 would receive Android 13 approximately by May 2023.

In this specific case, given that the three generations of updates are a recent addition from Samsung, it wouldn’t make much sense to investigate much further back.

Although we used a very popular Samsung model as an example, this little analysis can be applied to almost any brand or model except new brands or ranges which do not have an update history yet. Mention again that the dates are always used to give us an approximate idea and not a definitive one.