Samsung has the best software support policies in the Android world. It promises four major Android OS upgrades for many of its flagship and mid-range smartphones, which is higher than what even Google offers despite being the company that develops the operating system, and up to five years of security updates for many devices.
Unfortunately, despite still being powerful and perfectly capable of running newer versions of Android and One UI, not many Galaxy devices are promised four generations of OS upgrades. In fact, only devices released from 2021 onwards are included in the list.
Flagship and mid-range Galaxy phones and tablets before 2021 are only eligible for three generations of OS upgrades, and, well, that means Android 13/One UI 5 will be the final big update for the Galaxy S20 series. And, after switching from the Galaxy S22 Ultra to the Galaxy S20 Ultra as my daily driver, I wish that weren't the case.
Galaxy S20 lineup has improved a lot with updates, and I wish it would get more
It's because Android 13 has shown that the Galaxy S20 lineup has plenty of life left in it. The Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra all pack hardware that is far from being outdated. Even the issues that plagued these phones courtesy of the messed up Exynos 990 processor seem to have been fixed, which is perhaps the biggest reason I'm disappointed that there will be no Android 14 update for my Galaxy S20 Ultra.
Android 13 has made my Galaxy S20 Ultra considerably snappier than before. While I thought it would feel like a downgrade over the Galaxy S22 Ultra after I made the switch, that hasn't been the case. Instead, the Galaxy S20 Ultra feels like a completely new phone with Android 13/One UI 5.0, and that has gotten me wishing the S20 series had been included in Samsung's latest software update policy of four major OS upgrades.
Of course, there's also the fact that the Galaxy S20 series had so many issues at launch that the one thing Samsung could have done is to make it eligible for longer software update support as a compensation for anyone's who has stuck with their Galaxy S20, S20+, or S20 Ultra all this time and intends to continue doing so for at least another year or two.
But that sort of wishful thinking has never really worked. Plus, Samsung has never looked at how capable a smartphone is when deciding whether it would get a new version of Android, so Android 13 is pretty much it for the Galaxy S20 series. Again, it's disappointing, but I guess it is what it is and Galaxy S20 owners are going to have to live with it, myself included.
P.S.: The Galaxy S20 series could get the One UI 5.1 and One UI 5.1.1 updates that Samsung is likely to release alongside the Galaxy S23 lineup and its 2023 foldables respectively, but taking previous point One UI updates into consideration, neither is expected to be a major upgrade.
