Samsung is slowly improving its crucial part of the software and after-sales by pushing new updates. The company has a problem with the slow OTA or Android OS update rollout. The update frequency is improving but is still slower than expected. On March 22nd, Samsung started the OTA rollout of the Android Marshmallow for Galaxy Note 5. The company already started the rollout of updates for Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, and Galaxy S6 Edge+ on March 18th. India and Nepal are receiving the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow upgrade via OTA which is around 1.2 GB.
We found that some Samsung customers got the updates while some didn’t. According to our sources residing in India, Galaxy S6 Edge+ in India is definitely getting the update. All the S6 Edge+ in Nepal are from the grey market or imported so they will also get updates but not Nepal specifics. The grey market phones will get updates for the country they were imported (India, UAE, USA).
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This rollout is phase one and there are still phases two and three left which will include the older flagship phones such as including Galaxy S5, Galaxy Alpha, and Galaxy A series. The new updates actually came to this region a bit later than Europe or USA. As expected all the important features are here with a slight change in UI and reasonable change in UX part. Users can see peculiar but positive changes in battery consumption due to “Doze mode”. According to our sources, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge are also receiving Marshmallow updates in both countries.
Android Marshmallow for Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6
The new update of the Android Marshmallow for Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6 series, and Galaxy S7 bring many changes. First of all, there are changes in UI elements and security patches compared to Android Lollipop. The interface is changed a little bit. It looks cleaner and decluttered. The notification bar is clean, white in color with more flat icons.
There are some changes in security and permission as well. The permission for applications can now be controlled for access to the network, camera, storage, calls, and other features. This in-depth or granular lets users control the app and what it uses. This makes better security thus strengthening safety and privacy. Users can set select permissions of apps inside the settings of the phones as well. Many other bugs have also been fixed which include problems like battery drainage. So there are many improvements actually.
Samsung recently announced to provide regular security patch updates to flagship smartphones. Currently, they have silently extended the rollout. However, they have been regularly updating their mid range phones too. We also have been receiving security patch updates for Galaxy A5 regularly. In regular updates, additional features are added and modified. For example, Galaxy Core Prime and Galaxy A5 didn’t have Smart Manager but they received the internal Power-App manager with an Android security patch later after release.
Look Out For The Update: OTA Notification
The Android updates are making the Samsung phone more stable, smoother, and feature-rich. But as the company has many variants and models, there are challenges. So the updates are coming late and some models or regions only receive the updates in time. The majority of consumers find this irritating because they have to wait longer. For example, Galaxy Core Prime in other regions got Lollipop except for Nepal and India. So, Samsung still needs to work on the software rollout.
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Samsung smartphone consumers complain too much about the slower software updates. This is not good because people can change phones in the next update cycle so Samsung really has to focus on it. We expect better regular updates, security patches, and longer OS update support to improve the phone’s security as well as experience. Longer software update support and after-sale service give better value to phones and better prices in the second-hand market. So it is very important to have a solid after-sale service system.
As these are fairly new phones, Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 lineup can get an Android Nougat update in Q4 2016 or Q1 2017. However, that may be the last update because companies don’t provide very long OS support. So if you want longer support and new updates, get the Galaxy S7 Edge because that is the best flagship right now.
