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European Union: rules on the way to increase the longevity of phones?

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EU lawmakers have proposed sweeping requirements for smartphones sold in the region (as taken up by Ars Technica). Regulators have suggested that phone vendors provide at least five years of security updates and three years of operating system updates to their devices, and the aforementioned security and operating system updates should reach users “at the latest two months after the public release “.

If applied, these rules could fundamentally change the way Android manufacturers manage software support for their devices. Samsung and Google are the only brands that promise five years of security updates on their phones, but even so, not all of their devices enjoy these benefits. Samsung also releases four major Android updates for its premium devices, the longest-running in the Android sphere, by comparison, Google and other brands are providing three or fewer major operating system updates for select devices.

A regulation like this could force companies to roll out updates for longer , not just for their flagship phones, but also for less premium budget devices that don’t usually get long-term upgrade commitments from manufacturers.

The draft regulation also provides that the battery capacity of a device “does not deteriorate after an operating system software update or a firmware update when measured with the same test standard originally used for the declaration of conformity”. They also state:

No performance changes will occur as a result of the refusal of the update, with the exception of third party application software.

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  • EU wants to enforce 5 years of security and 3 years of OS updates for all phones (Android Authority)

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