14 DAY TRIAL // While Samsung is readying Android 7.0 Nougat for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge, another smartphone is getting a part of the update, the Galaxy Note 5.
Apparently, Samsung has decided to bring the Note 7's Grace UX on the Galaxy Note 5 as well, even though that's not something the South Korean company usually does.
The handset maker provides major Android updates to its high-end smartphones, but it rarely includes new versions of its UI along with these updates. Normally, if you want your Samsung smartphone to run the latest version of the company's UI, you usually switch to a newer model.
This makes the recent move a curiosity and a nice surprise for those who still own the Galaxy Note 5. There's a catch, though, as the update is only available in South Korea for the time being.
XDA forum user TokyoGuy, for instance, decided to switch to a Galaxy Note 5 after returning his Samsung Galaxy Note 7 weeks ago. After setting up the device, he noticed that an OTA began to download.
The Galaxy Note 5 that he got was running Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and had the August security patch, so he thought the update should bring the phone to either the October or November security patch.
However, the update was about 600MB in size, so it couldn't have been just some security patches, even though the changelog didn't mention anything else.
After he downloaded and applied the update, he noticed that he now had Grace UX installed on his Galaxy Note 5, the new UI introduced with the Galaxy Note 7 a few months ago.
The update is baseband version N920KKKU2CPI1 and build MMB29K.N920KKKU2CPJ4. Also, the kernel version has a build date of October 24.
Apparently, all carriers in South Korea have already pushed this update to Galaxy Note 5 units in the country, so it's just a matter of time until it goes live worldwide.
It's also worth noting that Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is rumored to receive the Android 7.0 Nougat update sometime next year.
