The Galaxy S21 series is getting downgraded

nandika.iyerravi@futurenet.com (Nandika Ravi)
2025-02-04 16:13:00
www.androidcentral.com

What you need to know

Samsung subtly indicated that it will not be providing monthly updates to its Galaxy S21 series.
Since the series was destined for 4 years of full software updates, it means One UI 7 is its last.
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE still makes the cut for monthly updates, given its later release.

Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series recently launched with seven years worth of updates, which should begin with monthly security updates. However, anyone with the Galaxy S21 series will start noticing a slowdown in update cadence just four years after the phone’s launch.

In a security updates post, Samsung lays out the devices that will get monthly, quarterly, and bi-annual updates. As recently spotted by 9to5Google, the S21 series will now be downgraded to quarterly updates.

Monthly, quarterly, and biannual firmware security updates include patches for Android OS-related security issues released by Google, as well as patches for Samsung-specific security issues.

This change in update cadence will impact the standard Galaxy S21, S21 Plus, and Ultra models since they were. However, owners should note that the phones are still expected to receive the massive One UI 7 update, as they were promised four years of OS upgrades after launching with Android 11. This will bring a revamped UI and perhaps additional Galaxy AI features in tandem with the latest flagship models. So, the S21 owners still have something to be excited about.

That said, the Galaxy S21 FE was launched later in 2021, so it will continue to receive monthly updates for now, along with all subsequent S series models, starting from S22 until the most recent Galaxy S25 series.

Some of the other devices still eligible for monthly security updates include the following models: Galaxy Z Fold 3 5G, Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G, Galaxy Z Fold 4, Galaxy Z Flip 4, Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, W23, W23 Flip, W24, W24 Flip, W25, W25 Flip, Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition and Enterprise Models starting with the Galaxy A53 5G.

Along with these phone-related updates, Samsung is releasing a security patch for its wearables as well, listed below:

Galaxy Watch 4, Galaxy Watch 4 Classic
Galaxy Watch 5, Galaxy Watch 5 Pro
Galaxy Watch 6, Galaxy Watch 6 Classic
Galaxy Watch FE
Galaxy Watch 7
Galaxy Watch Ultra

As for the Galaxy S21, owners should continue to see updates last until sometime in early 2026, although it’s unlikely it’ll receive the next major Android release.

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