Samsung’s brilliant Galaxy S8 series is now a four-year-old flagship smartphone. Four years, in today’s standards, is a long time to own a smartphone and keep it running as your daily driver. The Samsung Galaxy S8 was different though.
The Galaxy S8 series was the first smartphone from Samsung that came out from the drama that was the Samsung Galaxy Note7 series. It was also Samsung’s first foray into the ultra-thin bezel design language with edge-to-edge displays fronting the devices. While the overall design of the device has not changed that much though, it was one good-looking high-end device and feels it too.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus was also Samsung’s first device to come with Android 7.0. But it was not the Samsung that we were used too as well with a complete overhaul of the iconic Samsung interface. The Samsung Galaxy S8 series was the first Samsung One UI device ever, and Samsung never looked back. To be fair, we never looked back into TouchWiz UI too, with good reasons.
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ has now officially been removed from Samsung’s security updates page altogether. Last year, they have been removed from monthly update list to quarterly update list. That means also that your Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ will remain as it is from this point onward.
It is not the entire Samsung Galaxy S8 line-up that gets the axe though. The Samsung Galaxy S8 Active and S8 Lite will still be getting quarterly and biannual updates for now. The Galaxy S8 active and Galaxy S8 Lite was launched a little later than the main flagship models launched in the 1st quarter of 2017.
In that case, while you might be tempted to swap the Samsung Galaxy S8 devices for a newer device, you might want to keep in mind that the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ are still great devices in today’s standards. We are not saying you should not upgrade, because we think you should take a look at today’s flagships and get what tickles your fancy through the highly competitive smartphone plans from your favourite telco. The Samsung Galaxy S8 still can be used as your secondary device for example. You could even turn it into your IoT controller or sensor if you want to with Samsung’s Galaxy Upcycling at Home programme.
With the removal of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and S8+ from the supported updates list, comes a slew of changes too to other devices being moved from regular monthly updates to quarterly and biannual updates from this point onward. True to Samsung’s words, firmware updates for their devices are kept to about 4 years. As we mentioned earlier, four years is a long time for a modern smartphone. Four years update cycle is also longer than most manufacturers in the industry currently. To check if your Samsung Galaxy device is still supported and updated, check out their updates website.