Firmware

Nothing is eternal. Everything has a beginning and an end, and the same applies to firmware support for Samsung Galaxy devices. Sooner or later, the company has to pull the plug on older Galaxy phones and tablets and cease to update them. This scenario has now happened to a couple of Galaxy phones and tablets.

Our friends at GalaxyClub note that Samsung has just ended support for three phones, namely the Galaxy A40, Galaxy A20, and Galaxy A10. They were released in the first half of 2019, which means Samsung ended support after four years.

Both the Galaxy A10 and Galaxy A40 have been updated to the March 2023 security patch, so they're ending on a recent firmware update. Meanwhile, the Galaxy A20 appears to have reached end-of-life on an older December update.

Samsung pulls the plug on three old Galaxy tablets

In addition to the aforementioned phones, Samsung has removed three Galaxy tablets from its official list of supported devices. They are the Galaxy Tab S5e (SM-T72x) and Galaxy Tab A 10.1 (SM-T51x), and the Galaxy Tab A with S Pen (SM-P205x).

Similar to the phones, the three Galaxy tablets that lost support were released in the first half of 2019. They, too, have reached end-of-life on older firmware. The last security patch the Galaxy Tab S5e received was in November, and the Tab A10.1 got the December 2022 patch. In some markets, the Tab A with S Pen benefits from a newer January 2023 security update.

As noted by our colleagues, these phones and tablets are not necessarily unsafe to use moving forward. Given that some Galaxy devices get new security patches every six months, these phones and tablets that have reached end-of-life should stay relatively safe for at least half a year after they got their last security update.

Even so, in the past, Samsung released critical security patches for very old devices that were no longer supported, such as the Galaxy S6 series in 2022. As such, it's not impossible to imagine that these low-cost phones and tablets will get one more security patch or two. However, there's no guarantee of that happening.

Mihai Matei - Blogger

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First Samsung device: SGH-A800

Mihai is a blogger and column writer at SamMobile. His first Samsung phone was an A800 which took a lot of beating, and a part of him still misses the novelty of the clamshell design. In his free time, he enjoys watching shows, documentaries, and stand-up comedy; listening to music, taking walks, and occasionally playing old(er) video games.