In the Android ecosystem, Nokia may not be the biggest of players but the brand is almost unparalleled when it comes to software support. It has been on the Android One bandwagon almost from day one, and promises two years of Android OS updates and security updates for all of its phone, a pledge that it has largely stuck by.
Thus, it"s all the more delightful to see that in a world where even flagships may not get the latest Android update months after their release by Google, HMD is going a step beyond and is promising to one-up itself by providing security updates for its first batch of smartphones - from all the way back in 2017 - for one more year.
Once the two-year support period for the Nokia 3, Nokia 5, Nokia 6, and Nokia 8 has ended, the company is promising additional security updates for a year. However, unlike the monthly security updates it currently provides, these updates will be flighted quarterly, with the relevant updates for prior months bundled in.
The dates for when normal security support for each model will end and the quarterly scheme will begin are given below:
- Nokia 3 - Quarterly patch begins from September 2019 until September 2020
- Nokia 5 - Quarterly patch begins from October 2019 until October 2020
- Nokia 6 - Quarterly patch begins from October 2019 until October 2020
- Nokia 8 - Quarterly patch begins from October 2019 until October 2020
Unfortunately, the company"s lowest-end release in 2017, the Nokia 2, will not be eligible for the additional year of security updates and neither will the Nokia 6 Amazon variant that was sold in the US and India. These phones will see their end of support in November and October 2019, respectively.