Samsung Galaxy S III: Android updates for smartphones up to 10 years old

Samsung has established itself as a smartphone provider with many guaranteed Android updates in recent years. Support was recently extended to four versions of Android and five years of security updates. Samsung is now adding Android updates for devices like the Galaxy S III retrospectively for up to ten years.

Note from April 2, 2022: This content is not true, the editors had made it up for April 1.

Smartphone maker Samsung is once again expanding its upgrade promise for Android devices today. After the company had a pretty bad reputation in this regard, Samsung moved forward in the summer of 2020 with the announcement of One UI 3 with three guaranteed Android updates. Four years of security updates followed in February 2021, before the next commitment was introduced this time with four major versions of Android and five years of security updates with the introduction of the Galaxy S22 series.

Fewer new devices in the circular economy

Today, the company is upping the ante again and in the course of the year it also wants to distribute a final update to historical smartphones that are up to ten years old, to provide them with the latest features of the latest devices and close security gaps. As Samsung explains, the move is also made for sustainability reasons, as more and more customers use their smartphones for a longer period of time. A smartphone with up-to-date software represents one that does not have to be produced from scratch and brought into the circular economy. The move is intended to help Samsung become a fully carbon-neutral company in the long term.

• Q3 2022: Galaxy S III, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S5
• Q4 2022: Galaxy S6, Galaxy S7
• Q1 2023, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S9

Galaxy S III to Galaxy S9 receive updates

Specifically, Samsung announced today that it will update many flagship smartphones from the last ten years to the current Android 12 with One UI 4 starting in the third quarter of this year. The Galaxy S III (test) introduced in May 2012 is for starters, originally running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Subsequently, the smartphone received Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, but support was later discontinued. Nine major versions of Android later, Samsung is now breathing new life into the device. The Galaxy S4 and S5 will be updated later in the third quarter, the Galaxy S6 and S7 in the fourth quarter, and finally the Galaxy S8 and S9 early next year. Samsung had recently supplied Android 12 to the Galaxy S10, S20, and S21 families.

Chipmaker involved in development

The System LSI divisions of Samsung, Qualcomm and Google also played a key role in implementing the Extended Update Promise. The Galaxy S III uses the older 32-bit Exynos 4 Quad 4412 SoC with Cortex-A9 cores and Mali 400 MP4 graphics, for which new Android 12-capable drivers had to be developed first. sold with Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, which only has a Cortex-A5. For older hardware, Google has developed an exclusive port of Android 12, which Samsung has expanded with its own One UI 4.