With its new update policy, Honor joins the ranks of Google and Samsung

At its keynote event ahead of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, Honor announced plans to double down on its Android software update policy. The company has confirmed that going forward, its flagship Magic series devices will benefit from seven years of feature updates, in addition to seven years of security patches.

The candybar-style Magic 7 Pro and the book-style foldable Magic V3 will be the first beneficiaries of Honor’s new-and-improved update policy, with future high-end Magic devices expected to follow suit. In committing to seven years of major Android feature releases, Honor joins the ranks of Google and Samsung in offering a more robust and long-term update cadence on its flagship handsets.

Honor’s Magic7 Pro and Magic V3 just got more appealing

The company’s revitalized commitment to Android feature updates is a step in the right direction

Most Android phone makers support their flagship smartphones with new OS updates for anywhere between two and five years. In matching Google and Samsung in offering seven feature updates, Honor becomes only the third major phone company to commit to such a lofty software goal.

The Magic 7 Pro and Magic V3 are both high-end from a hardware perspective, and as such, they offer tons of computational headroom for future OS releases. Honor’s new update policy is certainly a positive development in that it keeps the devices up-to-date and secure going into the future.

Under the hood, it appears that Honor is leveraging the joint Longevity GRF program venture from Google and Qualcomm. This technology provides processor-level support for OS updates without the need for as much retooling or tweaking on the phone maker’s side. In other words, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset is the catalyst for this change, and hopefully, we’ll see other OEMs jump aboard the seven-year-update train sooner rather than later.

Honor’s emboldened commitment to Android software updates comes alongside the release of new hardware, including the Earbuds Open, the Watch 5 Ultra, and the Pad V9.

The revitalized update policy is one of several key moves being made by Honor under the new leadership of CEO James Li, as part of its broader ‘Alpha Plan’ strategy. The company announced a ten-billion dollar investment in artificial intelligence development over the course of five years in hopes of becoming a dominant player in the AI space.

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