The 2017 Galaxy A lineup would no longer get any updates

Feb 4, 2021 14:55 GMT  ·  By

Samsung has recently updated the list of devices eligible for monthly security updates with a series of changes, and these modifications took many by surprise.

Not necessarily because the South Koreans dropped some specific models, but because they include a name whose demise in terms of security updates would be quite a shock.

In other words, Samsung removed the Galaxy Fold 5G from the list of devices no longer getting security updates, though it was pretty clear it was all just a mistake and sometimes edited the list in a rush. The Galaxy Fold 5G is now back on the table, so going forward, it’s still supported normally.

On the other hand, the devices that are waving goodbye to security updates are included in the 2017 Galaxy A lineup, as well as the Galaxy J3 Pop. In other words, if you’re currently using any of these models, you won’t be getting any security updates, and we all know what that means.

These are the models losing security update support

Without security updates, the likelihood of vulnerabilities to be found in the OS version running on your device is getting bigger and bigger, and in the long term, this is a big no-no for things like going online with such a smartphone. This is because malicious actors out there are specifically hunting for outdated devices they can break into with malware exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities.

So as a summary, the following models are no longer getting security updates as per Samsung’s latest update for the support model list:  

  • Galaxy J3 Pop
  • Galaxy A5 2017
  • Galaxy A3 2017
  • Galaxy A7 2017

Your best option right now is to get a new phone, but we all know this isn’t necessarily the most convenient workaround, so there’s a chance many of these models would still be in use after this end of support milestone.