Besides Apple, there are essentially no major smartphone brands that only make flagship devices. As much as Samsung is known for having the most iconic Android flagships, it'd be a disservice to ignore the rest of its portfolio, filled with countless midrange and budget devices.
Once you've actually purchased a Galaxy device, Samsung has always given the most aftersale attention to its flagships. The Samsung Galaxy S24 series will be getting seven years of OS updates and it was a pipe dream to expect similar treatment for the budget devices. However, with a rumor regarding the upcoming A16, maybe I was wrong.
The Samsung Galaxy A16 5G Is Rumored To Be Getting Six Years Of Major OS Updates
The Samsung Galaxy A15 came out last year, as the second lowest entry in Samsung's Galaxy A series (just above the Galaxy A05). When you buy one of the more budget options that Samsung offers, you simply want a device that works and has serviceable specs across the board, for a price that is a lot easier to swallow than an S24. What you don't expect is for Samsung to pay much attention to you after you've bought the phone.
Well, this might be set to change, if a leak brought to us from The Tech Outlook is to be believed. According to the publication which obtained what seem to be internal slides from a “reliable source”, the Samsung Galaxy A16 5G is going to offer consumers 6 years of major OS updates and 6 years of security updates. I'm going to take that with a pinch of salt since it sounds too good to be true.
For comparison, the Samsung Galaxy A15 gets four years of major OS updates and five years of security updates, and even then, most people would admit that's a good deal to get on a cheaper device. Six years could be a game changer. The Samsung Galaxy A06 has launched already, and according to The Tech Outlook, we can expect the Samsung Galaxy A16 to be unveiled by the end of the month, albeit only in India initially.
This Could Mark A Major Shift In The Software Support Standard For Budget Smartphones
In the United States, the Samsung Galaxy A15 5G can be snagged for just about $159.99. That's a budget device in every sense of the term. The Samsung Galaxy A16 5G, if it eventually comes to the US, should cost around the same.
For a device that is under $200, getting six years of OS updates when the max in the Android world as a whole is seven years, is pretty astounding. And the best part about Samsung potentially deciding to do this is that it might set a standard for the rest of the company's budget devices, and hopefully even for other companies.
I still have a little bit of doubt in me because it simply sounds too good to be true (an A16 running on One UI 12?), but we won't need to wait too long to see if this rumor pans out. Part of me hopes that it does.
