Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 range will get way more updates than expected

Four years of support

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Samsungmade a big announcement at its first Unpacked event of 2022, and we’re not talking about theSamsung Galaxy S22range. The company revealed that it would offer extensive support for its latest phones and tablets, and now we’ve learned that it’s made a similar promise for theSamsung Galaxy Watch 4range.

In apress release, Samsung stated that the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, theSamsung Galaxy Watch 4 Classic, and upcoming Galaxy Watch devices (such as theSamsung Galaxy Watch 5presumably), will get up to four years of upgrades to Wear OS and the company’s One UI Watch interface.

That “up to” bit is slightly concerning, as it could give Samsung some wiggle room to offer less, but it certainly sounds like the company is aiming for four years of software support.

That’s almost a match for the promise it made about recent phones and tablets, including the Galaxy S22 range, theSamsung Galaxy S21range, theSamsung Galaxy Tab S8range, theSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, and theSamsung Galaxy Z Flip 3, along with upcoming devices in those ranges and the Galaxy A range.

Those devices are also slated to get four years ofoperating systemupdates, but they’re additionally promised five years of security patches, which isn’t something Samsung has mentioned for its wearables.

Still, four years of updates is still a big boost, and should see Samsung’s wearables leading the Wear OS pack on that front.

Analysis: Samsung might actually match Apple here

While Samsung’s smartphone support plans still aren’t quite a match forApple’s, its smartwatch plans might be.

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Currently, the oldestApple Watchthat is still getting software updates is theApple Watch 3, which was four years old at the time of its most recent major update (towatchOS 8).

While not confirmed, there’s a good chance it won’t get watchOS 9, especially as it was also the oldest watch to get watchOS 7 – so it seems like it should have reached its cut-off point by now.

We probably won’t find out for sure until around September when watchOS 9 is likely to land, but either way, Samsung is probably either matching Apple here or coming close. Now we just need other companies to follow suit.

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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