One of the reasons why people buy a smartphone unlocked and off-contract is that they want to receive firmware updates quickly since mobile carriers tend to delay updates because of the tests they run. Unlocked units also don't have all of the bloatware that you find on carrier versions. However, many who own unlocked Galaxy smartphones in the United States have been left feeling that they've been handed the short end of the stick.
Take the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge for example. Unlocked variants of both handsets were released in the United States but they last received an update in December 2016 and are still on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow while almost all major carriers in the United States has already released Android 7.0 Nougat for the 2016 flagships. Carriers have even moved on to rolling out Nougat for the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 edge in Europe.
Jason Cipriani over at ZDNet reached out to Samsung for clarification on the company's approach to security updates for unlocked devices in the United States. While apologizing for the inconvenience, Samsung explained that due to “various circumstances,” it has been releasing security updates for unlocked Galaxy devices in the country on a quarterly basis.
The company adds that it has now “resolved the challenges” and is now committed to releasing security updates for unlocked devices on a monthly basis. Samsung is planning to release this month's security update for unlocked handsets soon and wants users to rest assured that the update will have all security patches to date.
