14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung promised back in August that it would provide monthly security updates for its Android smartphones. The South Korean company has kept its promise until now, but not many Galaxy handsets received these monthly updates.
Today, Samsung confirmed it would roll out the January security update to all major flagship smartphones. Although the handset maker announced the availability of the update, it will take a few weeks until it reaches all targeted devices.
Speaking of which, aside from Samsung Galaxy S6 and all its variations, as well as Galaxy Note 5, the Galaxy S5 should receive the update too.
Other smartphones might get the January security update, but Samsung was never clear on why mid-range devices are not eligible for these updates.
According to Samsung, the January security update should fix 7 vulnerabilities discovered by Google in the last couple of weeks.
7 vulnerabilities have been found in Samsung phones
These vulnerabilities might directly affect Samsung smartphones, but devices launched by other companies might contain other fixes. It's also worth mentioning that his Security Maintenance Release (SMR) includes patches from both Google and Samsung.
As mentioned earlier, along with Google patches, Samsung Mobile also provides 7 vulnerabilities and exposure items that the company describes on its official website. These fixes are meant to improve “Samsung's customer's confidence on the security of Samsung Mobile devices.”
Last but not least, the South Korean company stated that some of the Samsung Vulnerabilities and Exposure (SVE) items may not be included in this update, in case they were already included in a previous maintenance release.
This is the fourth security update Samsung provides to some of its high-end Galaxy smartphones, but more will follow in the coming months.
In case you captured the update already, don't look for any new features since the update is only meant to patch some vulnerabilities in Android OS.