While many around the world mourn the end of LG’s smartphone business, some questions remained. For those that have recently bought an LG phone, software updates is a major concern. LG has pledged that premium LG phones, like the LG Wing and LG Velvet, will continue to get Android OS updates for three years, even though they are quitting the smartphone industry.
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In its announcement, LG said that “all premium LG smartphones currently in use will receive up to three iterations of Android operating system updates from the year of purchase.”
The three year operating system update guarantee applies to phones released in 2019 and later. This means that the G series, V series, Velvet and Wing will all receive the latest versions of Android for three years from the date of purchase. Other LG models from 2020 such as the LG Stylo and K series will receive two Android OS updates.
In practice, this means that if you purchased a phone running Android 10, and updated it to Android 11, it is still eligible for Android 12 and 13 OS updates. As we’ve seen in the past, Android manufacturers are notoriously bad at keeping to their update schedules, so we are sceptical about how (or if) LG will do this given their exit from the business altogether.
Usually, Android manufacturers only deliver two major Android updates. More importantly to some, phones still receive security updates for another year or two beyond that. A phone that doesn’t receive security updates anymore is a major risk, as there are always new security threats being developed by nefarious players.
If you have recently bought an LG smartphone, it gives a bit of peace of mind. If you were considering buying an LG smartphone, we would implore you to reconsider.
