Android 14 will be third and final big update for some Galaxy devices

Samsung has no equal in the field of software updates for smartphones (except Appe). For a long time, in the Android ecosystem, manufacturers — including Samsung — used to provide two major Android updates to their smartphones and tablets.

In Samsung's case, it didn't matter if the device was a flagship or a mid-range phone – most of them would get only two big Android updates. But that changed in 2020 when the company announced that all flagship Galaxy phones launched in and after 2019 would receive three Android upgrades, and so would its most popular Galaxy A smartphones.

It didn't end there, however. Samsung eventually decided to add a fourth year of major OS updates to its flagships and some mid-range phones. And while initially the list of mid-range devices eligible for four years of OS updates was pretty small and exclusive to the Galaxy A lineup, Samsung has extended the policy to cover more devices in the last year, including bringing the Galaxy M and Galaxy F lineups and cheaper A series phones into the mix.

Now, no Galaxy device eligible for four generations of Android updates has been around long enough to run into that limit this year. However, that isn't the case for devices that are promised only three years of Android OS updates. For some of them, Android 14 will be the third and final big release, after which they will be downgraded to only receiving security updates and one or two minor One UI updates.

Here's a list of devices for which Android 14 is the third and final update:

• Galaxy A52
• Galaxy A52s
• Galaxy A52 5G
• Galaxy A72
• Galaxy Tab S7 FE

Keep in mind that the list above is of devices that launched running Android 11 out of the box and were eligible for three major Android updates, which will make version 14 their last and final stop. The list doesn't include devices that won't go past Android 14 because they launched running Android 12 and don't qualify for either the three-year policy or the four-year policy.