Newsletter
Samsung has started the rollout of the April security patch for the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 Edge in Europe. While the update does not add any new features, it does contain fixes for 49 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) in Android, as well as patches for safety issues that have been identified in Samsung’s own software like some previously identified memory leaks and issues related to elevated privileges.
Like it’s the case with updates such as this one, the rollout is happening in stages, which means it might take a while before you get a notification on your Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 Edge alerting you that the security patch has arrived and is ready to be installed. Still, those who are tired of waiting have the option of manually checking if the OTA (over-the-air) update is ready for download by going to the Settings app, tapping the “About phone” option and selecting the “Software update” command. Before proceeding with the installation of the patch, users are advised to make sure their phone’s battery is sufficiently charged and that a stable Wi-Fi connection is available. Even if the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge no longer hold the title of Samsung’s latest and greatest flagships – which now goes to the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus – they remain quite capable phones and the Korean tech giant will continue updating them for the foreseeable future, the company previously promised.
The Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge might be Samsung’s last flagships to take advantage of a physical home button, as the company is now pursuing a more innovative, almost bezel-less design which leaves little room for a home key at the bottom. While this year’s Galaxy S8 makes use of Samsung and Qualcomm’s first 10nm processors – the Exynos 8895 and Snapdragon 835 – last year’s models came equipped with Samsung’s homegrown octa-core Exynos 8890 processor and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820. Interestingly enough, the Galaxy S8 features 4GB of RAM just like its predecessor, but its base storage model has now been bumped from 32GB to 64GB. Despite being available at launch with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge were eventually updated to Android’s latest mobile operating system – Android 7.0 Nougat.
