Your Android Has An ‘End Of Life’ Date Just Like Every Other Smartphone

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Whether it’s an iPhone or Android device, your smartphone doesn’t come with a “best before” date like the dates printed on packaged food. Smartphones don’t expire in the same sense. However, there is a practical expiry date that applies to all smartphones, one that every buyer should be aware of, no matter what software platform or smartphone vendor they may prefer. The “end of life” date for smartphones is the day the vendor stops releasing software updates to the handset. This is less about the major software releases that bring new features to smartphones every year. It’s about the security updates that keep you safe from vulnerabilities in the software that hackers can exploit and put your digital data and money at risk. When the smartphone stops receiving security updates, it becomes a liability. The good news is that there’s an unofficial way to find out when your smartphone is supposed to expire – the End of Life website. Even without this resource, there’s good news for Android fans, as several vendors offer much longer support than before, extending up to seven years after the phone’s manufacture date.

Samsung and Google are two of the key Android device vendors that offer up to seven years of software updates for their newest flagship devices. These guarantees are recent, as the two companies started making these commitments in 2023 and 2024. Before that, Samsung flagships would go up to four years, while some Pixel devices would receive up to…

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