The February 2022 Android security patch has reached Samsung‘s Galaxy S21 series in the US. The carrier-locked variants of last year’s flagship trio are currently picking up the new security update stateside. Their unlocked counterparts should also join the party soon. Samsung has already seeded the February SMR (security maintenance release) to the international versions of the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra.
As of this writing, the latest update for the carrier-locked Galaxy S21 units in the US is only available on a few carrier networks, SamMobile reports. The rollout should reach units on all major wireless providers over the next few days. The new firmware version for the phones is G99xUSQS5BVA6.
The February SMR for Samsung’s Android-powered smartphones and tablets brings fixes for over 60 vulnerabilities. The majority of these were found in Google’s version of Android and were patched by the Android maker itself. Some vulnerabilities are exclusive to Samsung’s custom software though. As the Korean behemoth explained last month, several of those issues are of critical severity. They could cause extensive damages to users if exploited in the wild. So you’d want to install the latest security patch as early as you can.
You probably already know the drill as far as installing an OTA (over the air) update is concerned. There’s not much to do. The best is to wait for a notification about the update. Alternatively, you can check for the update by navigating to Settings > Software update on your phone and tapping on Download and install.
Note that this update will not bring any new features or changes to the user experience. It hasn’t been long since the Galaxy S21 trio received the Android 12 update, which contained tons of goodies. The latest update is all about security fixes.
Samsung finally releases the February update to the US-bound Galaxy S21
US-bound smartphones are usually late to software update parties. And despite Samsung significantly improving its software game in recent years, there still are some occasional delays. The second week into March, the Galaxy S21 flagships are finally receiving the February security patch in the US, three weeks after their international counterparts.
Meanwhile, Samsung has already rolled out the March update to the Galaxy S22 series in some other markets. The latest SMR should gradually reach other eligible Galaxy smartphones and tablets, including the Galaxy S21 trio, over the next three to four weeks. We will keep you posted.
2022-03-08 15:05:29