Samsung has released the October 2019 security patch for the Galaxy A2 Core, M10, A6+, and J7 (2018). These devices have started receiving the said update in the last couple of days in select markets. It’s heartening to see the Korean tech giant bring the latest security patch to these mostly old and low-cost models.
The update for the Galaxy A2 is currently rolling out in India, while the M10 is receiving the same in the Philippines. The Galaxy A6+, meanwhile, is getting it in Poland and the Galaxy J7 (2018) in Puerto Rico and the US. Unfortunately, there is no pattern in Samsung’s rollout of software updates for low-end devices, so it’s difficult to predict the markets where this release will be made available.
According to Samsung, the October 2019 SMR (Security Maintenance Release) includes, among other things, Google’s patches for five critical and more than a dozen high-level Android vulnerabilities. It also includes Samsung’s patches for 17 vulnerabilities that are specific to Galaxy devices. We currently don’t know if the update brings any new features to these devices, but it’s doubtful going by the past experience.
If you own one of these devices but haven’t received the OTA notification yet, you can manually check for it by going to Settings and tapping the Download updates manually option under the Software Update menu. If that doesn’t work, you can search on our firmware database to see if your device has received a newer firmware and manually flash it if it’s available. You can find the firmware for the Galaxy A2 Core here, M10 here, A6+ here, and J7 (2018) here.
