Opinion post by Phillip Prado

Traditionally, Samsung hasn’t been the best at providing timely Android updates.

The company typically waits to ship devices with the latest version of Android until after the release of its Galaxy S flagships, and security updates usually take a while to make it through the pipeline.

It looks like the South Korean company has finally started to buck that trend.

Related: When should you expect to receive Android 10?

Android 10

Samsung began pushing out the Android 10 update to the Galaxy S10 line in November, which was way ahead of schedule. Then, the company began releasing the update on Galaxy Note 10 devices a couple of weeks later. It even pushed the update out to the Galaxy M20 and M30 budget devices.

Now, the recent announcement of the Samsung Galaxy A71 and A51 promises Android 10 out of the box. Though we don’t know when exactly we will see these devices, they are expected to launch before next generation’s Galaxy S11 series. Plus, the upcoming Galaxy Note 10 Lite and Galaxy S10 Lite are also expected to launch soon with the latest version of Android on board.

It’s true there are still many Samsung devices that haven’t received the Android 10 update and likely never will, but at least the company isn’t waiting for next year’s flagship devices to start pushing it to select current and upcoming handsets.

Security updates

It doesn’t stop there either. The Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus on the latest beta release have already received the January security patch weeks ahead of schedule. The company also began pushing the December patch to the Galaxy Note 9 and Note 10 lines days early at the tail end of November.

This is even more impressive given that Google has struggled to provide timely security patches to Pixel devices recently. Both November and December security updates fell several weeks behind, and the shiny new Pixel Feature Drops are still not here for many users.

Related: Buy a Pixel if you want timely updates… Oh wait.

The point is, Samsung is improving its software update rollouts and other manufacturers should take notice. The company has a long way to go, but it has also come a long way, and it’s headed in the right direction. We can’t say that for every Android OEM.

We’re looking at you LG.