Galaxy S23 owners just set a new bar for what a $1,000 phone owes you, and I agree

We asked how many years of major updates a $1,000 phone deserves, and seven won. That is exactly what the Galaxy S24 got eleven months after the Galaxy S23 launched with four.

That poll followed Samsung confirming One UI 9 as the last update for one of the best Samsung phones of 2023, far behind Galaxy S26 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Seven years, and it really wasn't close

We went back through the poll results after the vote settled, and the split was more lopsided than I expected. Here is how the four options finished:

• Seven, the same as the Galaxy S26 and Pixel 10: 41.13%
• However long people keep the phone, no fixed number: 28.92%
• At least five, to match the security patch window: 25.73%
• Four is fair, that's already a long time: 4.22%

That last line is the one worth sitting with. Fewer than 30 of you were willing to defend the policy the S23 actually shipped with, so 95.78% of the vote asked for more than Samsung gave.

The seven-year standard Samsung set eleven months later

The plurality answer is not some unrealistic wish. Seven years is Samsung's own current standard, set in January 2024, so 41.13% of you were asking for the deal the very next phone got by default.

It should be noted that the gap keeps widening in smaller ways too. The S22 got One UI 8 and not 8.5, and we covered Samsung leaving the S23 out of one of One UI 8.5's best features while newer Galaxy phones got it.



The 28.92% who rejected fixed numbers have the hardest data behind them. A new report citing Asurion figures puts the average US Android lifespan at 3.96 years, up from 3.52 the year before, with iPhones at 3.80 years.

That means the typical American Android owner is still reaching for the same phone at almost exactly the moment a four-year window closes, which is a strange place for a $1,199.99 phone to stop getting new software.

The same report ties the shift to flagship prices climbing and performance gains flattening out, so people are holding on simply because upgrading stopped feeling necessary. Your voting pattern tracks that almost exactly.

Before anyone on a Pixel 10 Pro or an iPhone 17 Pro Max gets too comfortable, it's fair to check what seven years have actually meant so far. We made the case last month that Google and Samsung are selling a seven-year illusion, largely because a battery does not survive that long without help.

We also argued earlier that the long promise reads more like a PR move than a plan, since almost nobody keeps a phone that long anyway. So if you own a Pixel 10 Pro or a Galaxy S26 Ultra, none of this shortens your runway, though the S23 is a fair warning that the number on the box and the support you get can drift apart.

What it means if you are still carrying an S23

The four-year window covers the S23, S23+, S23 Ultra and the S23 FE, and Samsung confirmed One UI 9 as the last of them. Security patches should keep coming until roughly February 2028, but no new Android version arrives after this one.

So the practical read is that your phone stays safe to use for about another year and a half, it just stops gaining anything new. That is exactly what the 25.73% who voted for a five-year floor were pointing at.

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Where I come down on it

I keep circling back to the fact that nothing about the S23 changed between February 2023 and January 2024. Same hardware, same price bracket, and eleven months later Samsung decided seven years was doable after all.

That is what makes the 41.13% feel less like a wish and more like a fair question. Samsung showed the longer window was possible almost immediately, then left the phones sold just before it sitting on the old terms.

I'd personally love to see Samsung stretch the S23 line by even one more year, and I know that is not how these commitments tend to work. Still, 688 of you just made the expectation pretty clear.

• Galaxy S26 Ultra vs Galaxy S23 Ultra: what three generations actually buy you
• How the Galaxy S26 Ultra stacks up against the iPhone 17 Pro Max
• Our Pixel 10 Pro review, and what its seven-year promise looks like in practice
• Come find me at @jojothetechie on X and Threads for hot takes and the behind-the-scenes bits that don't make it into the articles

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