Two Galaxy phones can sit on the same table, both running the same Android version, and one of them gets a security patch every month while the other hears nothing for three months. Owners of the quiet phone usually assume something is broken. Most of the time, nothing is. Samsung simply does not update every phone on the same schedule, and the schedule your phone is on was decided before you bought it.

Samsung's update tiers

Samsung publishes its devices on two main schedules. Flagship phones and recent mid-range models land on the monthly schedule, which means a new security patch roughly every month. Older models, budget phones, and devices nearing the end of their support window sit on the quarterly schedule, with a patch about every three months.

The tier is not a reward for spending more, exactly. It reflects how many devices Samsung has to test each patch against, and how long each model is promised support for.…