Back in 2014, Google announced that they would be officially updating Chromebooks for 5 years after their release date.
This seemed reasonable, as it’s quite similar to Microsoft’s Windows life cycle, and certainly better than Apple’s Mac OSX life cycle.
It seems even more reasonable when you consider that the CR-48 is still receiving updates, despite the fact that it’s official EOL date was December of last year.
A few models are approaching (or have already passed) their EOL dates, but it’s worth taking a look at a couple little notes at the bottom of Google’s Chrome OS Device EOL Policy are as follows:
1 Except where noted, these are unofficial End Of Life dates. Official EOL for these models will be at this date or later.
2 Officially announced End Of Life date.
So while every model has a date, the vast majority of them aren’t “official”, meaning support could extend beyond those dates. So far, the only two devices to have been “Officially announced” are the CR-48 (December 2015), and the Samsung Series 5 (June 2016), and remember the CR-48 is still receiving updates. So even official doesn’t mean official.
Does this mean the Samsung Series 5 will continue to receive updates? No, not necessarily. It’s Google, you never know what they’re going to do. Perhaps they’re supporting the CR-48 for nostalgia purposes. But it stands to reason that if the CR-48 is still receiving updates, that maybe the Samsung Series 5 will too. Who knows tho, really. Like I said, it’s Google we’re talking about here.
Just please don’t complain if your device stops receiving updates. You’ve officially been warned. Your best bet is to assume that your device is going to stop receiving updates when it hits it’s official EOL date, and any subsequent updates after that are just bonus.
Another device to keep an eye on is the Acer AC700, which has an EOL date of August 2016.
