Leak: Samsung will blow away other budget phone makers with update policy

Samsung and Google offer the best update policies in the smartphone industry, as their top-tier phones get seven years of Android OS updates and security patches. Now, it looks like Samsung could up the ante with its budget phones too.

The Tech Outlook obtained apparent Samsung Galaxy A16 5G slides from a “reliable source,” and one of the slides mentions that the upcoming budget phone will offer six major OS updates and six years of security patches.

That’s a significant step up from Samsung’s previous Galaxy A series phones, which offer four major OS updates and five years of security patches. This is also a major step forward for budget Android phones in general, while also putting some flagship Android phones to shame. For example, the OnePlus 12 and Xiaomi 14 offer four major OS updates and five years of security patches.

It’s not quite on par with the Pixel 8a and its seven years of OS and security updates, but the Pixel 8a retails for $500 while the Galaxy A16 5G is expected to cost ~$200 (much like its predecessor). In any event, we’re guessing this extended update policy will also apply to all upcoming Galaxy A series phones.

What else will the Galaxy A16 5G offer?

The website also obtained more apparent Galaxy A16 5G details. Starting with the design, the phone is said to offer a glasstic (glass-like plastic) rear cover and the Key Island bump seen on the Galaxy A35 5G and A55 5G. The phone will purportedly be available in Light Green, Blue Black, and Gold color schemes.

Samsung’s upcoming budget phone is expected to have a 6.7-inch 90Hz screen, an Exynos 1330 or Dimensity 6100 series chipset, 4GB/6GB/8GB of RAM, 128GB or 256GB of storage, and an IP54 rating. It also looks like the phone will unfortunately drop the 3.5mm jack.

The Galaxy A16 5G will apparently launch in India by the end of the month. So you should keep an eye on this phone if you want a cheap device that will receive updates for years.