If you've been a Samsung user for a long time, you'll remember that its software update release cycles left a lot to be desired. It felt like forever waiting for new iterations to arrive. The delays were particularly worse for users with carrier-locked devices in the United States. They'd often be waiting for months after unlocked devices got their updates from Samsung.
Samsung makes dozens of devices every year. It also supports many older devices for several years. You can imagine the effort and resources required to develop, test, and deploy major updates for such a large number of devices. This doesn't even count the security maintenance releases that Samsung has to release every single month without fail.
It has been nothing short of remarkable how Samsung managed to significantly improve the update experience for its customers over the past few years. It's now a matter of routine that its Galaxy devices get the monthly security updates even before Google details what vulnerabilities it has fixed in that month's release.
The timeline for major One UI updates has been impressive as well. Samsung typically launches the beta at the beginning of Q4 and rolls out the stable version to the public, at least for one or two of its existing flagship models, before the end of this year. It's been like a Christmas gift that Samsung has given to its users, allowing millions of them to experience all of the new features and improvements without having to wait for a long time.
However, it's been a bit of a letdown with One UI 7.0. Samsung had already confirmed at its annual developers conference back in October 2024 that its latest software update won't be released before 2025. It talked about how this was a very significant update with major changes being made to the user interface and new features being added, presumably to justify the additional time it would take to get this update out.
One UI 7.0 does bring major changes, but it's far from being the first, and Samsung has demonstrated on multiple occasions that it can get such significant updates out within a matter of months. With half of February behind us, the delay has now entered the territory of being unreasonable, particularly when you consider the fact that all Galaxy S25 units are shipping with One UI 7.0 out of the box.
Recent rumors have claimed that we may not see One UI 7.0 on devices like the Galaxy S24, Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 until April. This means that owners of the many other eligible devices may have to wait until June or July this year to get One UI 7.0, which also brings Android 15, the iteration of Android that would almost be outdated by the time Samsung gets done with its release.
If millions of Galaxy S25 units are already running the software, and the upcoming Galaxy A series is also likely to ship with it from the factory, why delay the inevitable for millions of existing devices? We made an observation recently that perhaps Samsung is delaying One UI 7.0 on Google's insistence or maybe it just wants people to buy the Galaxy S25 if they can't wait for One UI 7.0 anymore, either way, it doesn't justify the delay.
Those aren't good enough reasons for Samsung to be gambling away all of the goodwill it has generated with its customers after years of being criticized for a poor software update policy. It has also set new benchmarks by promising seven years of Android OS and security updates for many flagship devices, a factor that no doubt swayed many customers to shift from other Android OEMs to Galaxy. All of that is at the risk of being negated because of the One UI 7.0 delay.
The delay's outcome isn't isolated to just this version. Samsung's reportedly had to cancel One UI 7.1 altogether because there just won't be enough time to get it out. This means that the 2025 foldable lineup won't launch with a mid-year refresh of the software that previous iterations did. There may also be a knock-on effect that ends up delaying the One UI 8.0.
Surely this must not become the new normal, where Samsung essentially leaves existing device owners with no choice other than to buy its new phones if they want the latest software experience, or otherwise wait for a few months. That outcome will force its fans to vote against Galaxy with their wallets.
The post Samsung’s making me lose faith in its software update policy appeared first on SamMobile.
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