Yesterday, we learned that Samsung is finally beginning its rollout of Android 8.0 Oreo for the Galaxy S8 and S8+, nearly six months after the OS was first released. Indeed, one might say that Samsung and software updates go together like fish fingers and custard, as the company isn"t exactly renowned for pushing them out in a timely fashion or supporting devices for an extended period of time.
That"s why you might find it surprising that T-Mobile has published support pages that say that the carrier and Samsung have agreed to support Android Oreo for the Galaxy S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+, and Note5. This month, the S6 and S6 edge will turn three years old. It"s rare for any Android OEM to support a device for longer than two years, let alone three.
Perhaps the least surprising of the lot is the Galaxy Note5. While that will be three years old this summer, it makes sense for it to be supported for longer since its successor, the Galaxy Note7, had a habit of catching fire and was eventually pulled from the market with existing devices getting updated so that they"re essentially useless.
The Oreo updates are confirmed for the T-Mobile variants of these devices, so it"s unclear if it will be coming to other models. It seems likely though, since if Samsung is compiling Oreo for these older devices, it makes sense to do it for all of them, rather than just a carrier variant.
Source: T-Mobile (1) (2) (3) (4) via Android Central