Galaxy Tab S7 FE Will Only Get Quarterly Updates
When Samsung turned over a new leaf and promised more regular updates for its phones, many probably hoped it would apply to all devices equally. Of course, not all of Samsung's devices are made equal and even some older flagships aren't getting the same treatment. It is, however, strange when a new device that is almost top-tier doesn't get the same favor as slightly older products on the same tier. That is the surprising situation that Samsung is putting would Galaxy Tab S7 FE owners in with the recent changes it made to its software update schedules.
Samsung has three tiers of updates that represent the frequency of those updates. The top tier gets updates monthly and devices eventually move to quarterly and then biannual updates before falling off the lists completely. Premium flagship devices, both phones and tablets, naturally start out at the top but some newer phones, especially from the mid-range tiers, start in the quarterly tier from the get-go.
Samsung recently updated that list to add new devices and move older ones down the ladder but 9to5Google noticed something rather unexpected. The new Galaxy Tab A7 Lite that was announced two weeks ago was added to the list of devices that only get updates every quarter, which isn't surprising considering it's a rather low-tier tablet. The Galaxy Tab S7 FE that it launched with, however, was also on the same quarterly tier.
The 12.4-inch tablet may not be as high-end as its namesake but it still has features that it takes from its more expensive cousins. That includes a 2560x1600 pixel resolution and support for the S Pen as well as a Book Cover keyboard. One would expect or hope that, just like Samsung's Fan Edition phones, it would get monthly updates at the start of its market life.
Whether it was just an error on Samsung's part or intentional is still uncertain but we're hoping it's the former. Samsung is setting a good example on how to do Android updates right, even one-upping Google's Pixels so it should probably correct that error quickly, presuming it was an error at all.