Samsung has officially ended support for one of the most important phones in recent history. It’s time to say goodnight to the Samsung Galaxy S20 family as it leaves the official list of phones to be updated.
The Samsung Galaxy S20 was a pivotal device, not just for Samsung, but for the rest of the smartphone market too. It marked a change in strategy for Samsung, with a new naming structure that matched the year of launch. The phone prior to the Galaxy S20 was the Galaxy S10, but rather than introduce the Galaxy S11, Samsung jumped to a more meaningful numbering.
At the same time, Samsung also introduced the first phone to carry the name “Ultra”. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra was a new breed of phone, defining a new flagship category that was then widely copied by other brands and still is today.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra owed a lot to the Galaxy S10 5G that came before it, laden with cameras in a long bar across the back that looked unsightly. Not only did the Galaxy S20 Ultra move to a pronounced camera block on the rear – something that had been legitimised by the launch of the iPhone 11 Pro in September 2019 – but it was also one of the first mainstream phones to carry a periscope telephoto zoom lens.
Sure, Huawei had been there in 2019 with the Huawei P30 Pro and a 5x periscope camera, but Samsung’s introduction of 100x Space Zoom took no shortage of headlines. The fact that there was also a 108-megapixel main camera was the icing on the cake.
The Samsung Galaxy S Ultra line became the natural home for the Galaxy Note when that family retired in 2022, seeing the inclusion of the S Pen on the S22 Ultra – something that’s still present on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, although in doubt for future Galaxy S Ultra models, according to rumours.
The Galaxy S20 Ultra launched alongside the Galaxy S20 and the Galaxy S20 Plus on 11 February at an event in San Francisco, while also showcasing the Galaxy Z Flip for the first time. It was one of the last physical events as the world went into lockdown a few months later to deal with the global pandemic.
At the time of the Galaxy S20 launch, Samsung’s software update policy stood at 5 years, but in January 2024, Samsung shifted to a 7-year update promise, matching Google’s support for Pixel devices, a policy that’s most recently been adopted by Honor.
But now it’s time to say goodbye to your Galaxy S20 (if you still happen to be using it), as support has ended and there will be no more updates. Fortunately, the Galaxy S25 Ultra carries this legacy forward, still offering a big screen device, loaded with cameras and very much the flagship experience.
Chris has been writing about consumer tech for over 15 years. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket-lint, he’s covered just…
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