Honor has announced that it is matching Google and Samsung with a new seven-year smartphone software update promise.
At MWC 2025, Honor revealed its “game-changing commitment” to provide seven years of major Android OS updates and security upgrades for its top devices.
The company confirmed to Tech Advisor that this new guarantee applies initially to the Honor Magic 7 Pro, and will then make its way into forthcoming Magic-branded phones.
Besides basic Android and MagicOS support, Honor points out that this seven-year update promise will bring future “cutting-edge AI features” to upcoming generations of Magic phones.
Welcome to the party, pal
As we’ve already alluded to, Honor isn’t the first manufacturer to offer seven years of software updates.
Google was the first to offer this in late 2023 with its Pixel 8 range, which also applies to the current Pixel 9 family.
Samsung followed up on this with its own seven-year update promise when the Galaxy S24 series arrived in early 2024. Again, it has stuck to this promise with the subsequent Galaxy S25 range.
Honor is the third manufacturer to offer such an extensive guarantee, and we’re expecting more to fall in line behind it.
Foundry | Alex Walker-Todd
The Qualcomm factor
It’s noteworthy that Qualcomm recently announced that it was collaborating with Google to make it easier for manufacturers to offer such extended updates.
Starting with the Snapdragon 8 Elite and continuing across the next five generations of 8 and 7-series chips, Qualcomm will support manufacturers with up to eight years of software and security updates.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, to note that the Honor Magic 7 Pro runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. Hopefully, more early 2025 flagship phones will follow Honor’s lead and backdate this extended update promise.
OnePlus 13 and Xiaomi 15 Ultra, we’re looking at you.
