Summary
- Honor promises seven years of Android updates, matching Google and Samsung’s pledge.
- Samsung’s high-end phones receive 7 years of updates, while lower-tier models get 6 years.
- Honor becomes the third major brand to commit to an extended software support pledge.
The battle for longest software support on Android phones is heating up with a new brand promising to offer extended operating system updates for its products. Honor, the brand behind Magic smartphones, is promising seven years of Android updates to its latest phone as well as future handsets.
The Honor Magic 7 Pro is the latest smartphone from the brand, which was revealed for global markets in January this year with a promise of five years of OS updates. That has now changed, and Honor is now pledging for seven years of updates taking it through to January 2032. That’s likely to be Android 22.
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Honor’s software is called MagicOS, and the latest handset launched on its version called MagicOS 9. If you’ve bought a Magic 7 Pro, expect to get extended security updates and operating system changes up to whatever the company calls its version of Android 22.
The Google Pixel 8 series was the first time we saw a brand promise seven years of updates, and we’ve seen that same promise on all of Google’s phones since that point. Soon after, Samsung confirmed its Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus and Galaxy S24 Ultra would get the same promise of seven years of updates. Samsung has done the same for its foldable phones and its Galaxy S25 series.
Samsung hasn’t made the promise across its entire line either, with its new Galaxy A56, Galaxy A36 and Galaxy A26 getting six years of updates rather than the seven reserved for its most expensive devices.
Only three brands so far
It initially seemed like we’d see a wave of other manufacturers compete to offer similar updates, but the last year has been quiet for other brands joining the pledge. Honor is now the third major brand to commit to this many updates.
Honor has confirmed users of the Magic 7 Pro in Europe will first get the promise of extended software support. The brand also confirmed it will offer the extended software support to its future flagship models, whether they’re standard phones or foldables. Note that the company is referring to “flagship” phones here, so we don’t expect to see similar promises for the brand’s cheaper handsets.
The company’s latest foldable, the Honor Magic V3, came with a promise of four years of software updates. It launched on Android 14, and it’s already updated to Android 15, so expect another few generations of upgrades on top of that.
The next step of Honor
Honor also laid out its plans to reinvent itself for the AI age with what the brand calls its “Alpha Plan”. Today’s MWC 2025 keynote is the first with new CEO James Li in charge, and it laid out the brand’s new vision for the future. Honor says it wants to move away from being a consumer tech brand to become what it refers to as an “AI Device Ecosystem company”.
The plan involves new AI technologies and partnerships with some of the world’s biggest tech companies to better share advancements. Honor wants other companies to better collaborate in the world of AI, and part of its plan is to encourage other brands to share advancements. Honor also confirmed it will spend over $10 billion in the next five years in the AI market as part of its commitment to provide better AI experiences.
As for new technologies, we’ve yet to hear exactly when these will come to devices, but the brand has shown off a few new ideas. The most striking is Honor’s new AI Agent demo today that showed an upcoming assistant tech that can intelligently make a booking at a restaurant on a third-party service. The assistant took into account the person booking’s calendar appointments and other information such as travel conditions.
The brand also introduced new gadgets today with the launch of the Honor Watch 5 Ultra, Honor Pad V9, Honor Earbuds Open and a new MagicBook Pro 14 PC.
