It's been nearly three years since Samsung officially killed off the Galaxy Note series. The Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra – released in August 2020 – were the last phones in the Galaxy Note series. Half a year later, Samsung discontinued the Galaxy Note series and equipped the Galaxy S21 Ultra with the S Pen.

Now, the Galaxy Note 20 series is starting to become obsolete. Starting this month, the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra will only receive quarterly security updates, not monthly as before.

The Galaxy Note 20 series no longer gets monthly software updates

The Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra just turned four years old. According to Samsung's software update policy, they are no longer eligible for monthly security updates.

Samsung hasn't abandoned the Galaxy Note 20 series, however. While they were originally only supposed to get four years of security updates, the company tweaked its software update policy a few years ago to extend support for certain products.

The Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra are among the lucky few devices that will benefit from this decision. According to Samsung, the Galaxy Note 20 series will still receive software support. However, it will now update them quarterly instead of monthly. Samsung could continue to push updates to the Galaxy Note 20 series for another year before dropping support for them entirely.

Other Galaxy phones and tablets released in 2020 weren't as lucky. Samsung just dropped support for the Galaxy Z Flip 5G and the Galaxy Tab S7 series altogether. In other words, they won't get any more software updates.

If you like the S Pen and think it’s time to upgrade, your best bet right now is to get the Galaxy S24 Ultra or stick with the Galaxy Note 20 series until the Galaxy S25 series launches early next year.

However, you should know that, based on recent leaks, the Galaxy S25 Ultra could look very different from its predecessors. If so, the Galaxy S24 Ultra could be the last phone that bears any resemblance to the Note 20 Ultra.