Tsepz_GP
Well-known member
Yep my Note4 also continues to get Security updates.I don't know when you started following phones, but I've been actually a Mobile Guru at the Nokia Support Forums (user based like this but with actual employees lurking) back since 2006, and Nokia has beeb releasing a new flagship every 6mos since 2005ish. In 2007 alone they released 3 N9x phones. This today is just a continuing thread of new flagships every 6mos. And as of speaking, Samsung flagships still get 2 year updates and security updates for at least 3 years. The S5 is still getting security updates.
Further, it is actually unfair to compare Apple's update pattern when compared to Samsung for a few reasons.
1. Apple's overhead per device is bigger than Samsung's. Part of the overhead for each device sold is for costs of future OS updates. This can best be seen in the Samsung J series where exceptionally good selling ones with decent specs (usually J7 or J5 line) get updates, while others don't.
2. Unlike Apple who builds the entire OS themselves, they don't, and simply add stuff on top of Android. Apple has the capability to custom build iOS for each device wherein they can limit performance or features that device receives, whether or not that device has possibly capable hardware. This is the source of that nasty rumor about planned obsolecense. Apple phones do slow down after certain updates simply because the hardware isn't fully capable.
Samsung's move in these cases were just to not send the update. For example, US Galaxy S3's got the Lollipop update because it had 2GB RAM. International S3's didn't because it had 1GB RAM. That was their reason. The international S3 couldn't handle Android + TouchWiz in a fashion that they found acceptable. Basically instead of paring down TouchWiz or sending an update that would remove certain features to their skin which users may actually be using, they don't send it out at all.
Apple phones on the other hand don't have anything on top of the actual OS they built which they have to worry about in updates, so they don't need to worry about breaking old features. They just don't send some of the new features. This is why growth of the Pixel phone line is important, because it's the only one in the Android world which has the capability to match Apple in terms of software updates.
Considering that the CPU of the S7 (Exynos version) can run around those of the Snapdragon trio (S7 North America version, LG G5, HTC 10), I'm pretty sure it will get the update. Here in Asia we typically get the updates 3-4mos after Google releases it.
Heck, I booted up my Note4 today and even the Samsung web browser got an update.