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Samsung is updating a bunch of very old phones for a seemingly curious reason
This firmware update for the Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, and S8 better be worth the developers’ trouble
Five years after their initial release, most smartphones are no longer receiving regular security patches, let alone Android updates. That said, every once in a while we see some big exception, where a phone company reaches out to deliver a presumably very special update to a handset it was otherwise no longer supporting. That's the sort of situation we're thinking about right now, as Samsung makes the unusual move to release software updates for old Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S7 models — reportedly to fix a... GPS issue?
Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge stop receiving security updates
The Galaxy S7 active is still eligible for updates, though
The Galaxy S7 hasn't seen a new Android version in a long time, but until now, Samsung at least had been pushing security updates whenever it deemed them necessary. According to the company's security updates timeline, that's changing: The company won't release new patches for the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge any longer, though the S7 active is still supported.
Until recently, the words "Samsung" and "timely updates" were never uttered in the same sentence, unless you were emphasizing the contradiction between them. The Korean behemoth had a reliable, albeit very leisurely update schedule, pushing Android users who valued prompt access to security patches and new features away. With Android 10, things changed drastically, and Samsung has been impressing us more and more, with both major OTA rollouts and monthly security patches. Whether it's due to a different strategy, new team or leadership, Android's Project Treble, or some magical potion, Samsung is quickly becoming the OEM to beat for Android updates and we can't help but applaud its recent efforts.
Broken displays often end up being the death sentence for old phones, so in a great marketing move that's also good for the environment, Sprint has decided to offer $50 repairs for shattered Samsung Galaxy screens. The deal is valid regardless of your carrier and will run through February 9 or while supply lasts. To take advantage of it, you need to drop in at a nearby Sprint shop.
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- And just like that, the Galaxy S7 is back to receiving quarterly updates. Or at least Samsung's list says that it is; honestly, with this much back-and-forth action we're not sure what to expect until we actually start seeing future updates land.
The Galaxy S7 is an old phone, so it's no surprise that Samsung isn't planning on releasing updates for it as frequently anymore. Back in April, the company already announced that the S7 and S7 edge would receive updates on a quarterly basis rather than monthly, but it's just downgraded the update frequency once again to "other regular."
Android and Google often go hand-in-hand, but for users who would prefer to not expose all their data to Google, privacy-focused distributions do exist. Now, one organization is looking to sell users popular phones pre-loaded with one of these Google-stripped Android forks.
We all want companies to provide monthly security updates for our devices, but there comes a time when new phones take precedence over older models. Today is one of those difficult times. Samsung has updated its security update page with a few significant changes. The biggest losers are the S7, S7 Edge, and Tab S3 9.7, while newly-released models take their rightful place in the table.
LineageOS is one of the most popular custom ROMs available, with somewhere around two million active installations. It typically takes a while for the project to update to newer versions of Android, since development is largely done by maintainers in their spare time. Six months after the public release of Android 9 Pie, it looks like LineageOS is about ready to make the jump — but not before dropping older devices.
All four major US carriers pushed the Android 8.0 Oreo to their Galaxy S7 and S7 edge variants back in June. AT&T, surprisingly, took the lead, with Verizon shortly behind. Sprint came in next, and T-Mobile took last place. One and a half months after the update first started rolling out in the US, Samsung is finally pushing Oreo to the US unlocked S7 and S7 edge models (SM-G93xU).
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Back in March, T-Mobile promised that it would deploy the Universal Profile for inter-carrier RCS compatibility by the end of Q2 of this year. Although magenta subscribers have had RCS for in-network communications since 2015, and other US carriers have their own proprietary implementations, Sprint was the only one to support it at this "universal" level, courtesy of Google's Jibe. Now, with just two days to spare on its original estimate, T-Mobile is rolling out support for RCS Universal Profile 1.0.
Most US models of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge have received their Android 8.0 Oreo updates by now. AT&T got first place, with Verizon hot on its heels and Sprint coming in third. It's now the T-Mobile versions' turn, leaving the US unlocked model as the only major American S7 that hasn't received Oreo yet.
Several variants of the Galaxy S7 have already received their Android 8.0 Oreo updates, but definitely not all. AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint have pushed the update out in the US, and some international models have gotten Oreo as well. It's now time for the update to be delivered to the Galaxy S7 Duos (SM-G930O), which is a Chinese dual-SIM model.
It took a while, but US carriers are finally rolling Android 8.0 Oreo out to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. AT&T was, surprisingly enough, the first to do so, with Verizon hot on its heels after two false alarms. Sprint is now rolling the update out to its S7/S7 edge phones, leaving T-Mobile as the last major carrier to update them.
Over a month ago, Verizon toyed with Galaxy S7 and S7 edge owners' hearts by saying that the Android 8.0 Oreo update was rolling out, when in reality it had simply posted the wrong changelog. However, Verizon has again updated its support pages for the S7 and S7 edge, presumably for real this time.
AT&T has become the first US carrier to roll Android 8.0 Oreo out to the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge. We'd thought it would be Verizon, but Big Red has now pulled its S7 Oreo changelog down twice. AT&T, however, is cutting to the chase by actually releasing the update and skipping this support page nonsense.
The most popular custom ROM available, LineageOS, keeps on getting better and better. Since we last covered the project, two more devices are now supported, and a number of great features have been added. The project recently posted a new changelog, highlighting recent improvements and device changes:
Galaxy S7 and S7 edge devices in the UK began receiving their Android 8.0 Oreo updates at the beginning of this month, but Samsung is now suspending rollouts because some devices are experiencing random reboots. The company has issued an official statement and some instructions for those stuck with rebooting phones.
Recently in the US, Verizon inadvertently trolled Galaxy S7 and S7 edge owners on its network by releasing an update that supposedly brought Android Oreo to the devices. It turns out the carrier had just attached the wrong changelog, and Oreo wasn't imminent at all. To rub salt into the wounds of those customers, S7 and S7 edge units in the UK are now actually receiving the Oreo update.
Verizon has begun rolling out a new update for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. The release notes on the carrier’s website say that the update includes Android 8.0 Oreo, but users who have already installed the release were disappointed to find it didn’t quite deliver everything that was promised.
It's not often that an eBay seller offers better deals that can be found on sites like eBay, Swappa, or Craigslist, but that's the case with this refurbished Galaxy S7. For just $214.99, you can have a 2016 flagship with very little to no damage that many people still use today. Just make sure that you're on T-Mobile.