High-end mobiles released this year, and even a few mid-range models, too, should get updates for nearly a decade.
Buying a new phone is great for a few years, but you can typically guarantee needing to replace it somewhere between two and four years later. You can make a phone last a longer time by protecting it and treating it well, but when the software updates stop, you are basically stuck for security, and sometimes even apps.
However, times are changing.
While some phone makers are intentionally stopping updates at the two- or three-year mark — and some budget phones only at the year mark — some mobile makers are going much, much further.
iPhones typically get between six and eight years of updates, and recently, Google added support for seven years from the Pixel 8 range onwards.
But that may still be small compared to what Google and Qualcomm are now offering on some devices from this year onwards: eight years in total.
That’s the news coming from Qualcomm, which has announced phones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite and higher will get eight years of Android updates and security updates, essentially allowing you to keep a phone for much longer. It includes the recent Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra which runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite, as well as the recently launched Asus ROG Phone 9, which also features the same chip.
It won’t just be the high-end Snapdragon 8 Elite that gets support, either. Phones with models in the Snapdragon 7 series could also see support later this year, but previous Snapdragon 8 models won’t be included. This appears to strictly be new phones from 2025 onwards, it seems.
