Samsung’s Surprising Update—Galaxy S25 Falls Behind S24 And S23 – Forbes
Samsung’s S25 update has a surprising twistAs Samsung prepares to ship its shiny new Galaxy S25s to customers, there is already an Android 15 update available to download and install. More so than with any Samsung release before, firmware updates look set to be a major deal with this new release. There’s also a wry twist in exactly what has changed, as the S25 falls back.“The first firmware files for the new phones are available for download,” SamMobile reports. “These firmware files are based on Android 15 and One UI 7.0. The new firmware files are currently available for the European (S93xBXXU1AYA1) and USA variants (S93xUSQU1AYA1) of the phones.”But oddly, the website also confirms that this One UI 7 / Android 15 update for the Galaxy S25 “has the December 2024 security patch,” which begs the question as to what happened with January’s security patch, and when that will turn up.Both Google and Samsung included critical security updates in December’s release, but the same was also true in January. More so than ever before, the S25 promises to usher in a new normal for Samsung security updates with the long-awaited promise of seamless updating to reduce the downtime each month. It seems other flagships will miss out, even the recent S24 series — albeit nothing is certain yet, so watch this space.One reason Samsung may have waited to enable seamless updating is the bloat in storage space required to run parallel OS files. That has been fixed with a new, more targeted virtual process, but ironically Samsung’s first firmware update for the S25 seems to have some bloat of its own. “Interestingly,” says SamMobile, “these new firmware files for the three new phones are over 24GB in size. In comparison, the first firmware file for the Galaxy S24 Ultra was just 14GB in size. So, the software for the Galaxy S25 series is huge compared to its predecessor.”For the time being at least, owners of S24s and S23s can feel better protected with their more recent security updates, as Samsung syncs firmware for the new release. That feeling won’t last long, and there will be much more concern around the continued wait for the One UI 7 / Android 15 upgrade to reach these older devices.No new news here. In the “first wave,” says SammyFans, “the Galaxy S24 lineup is expected to receive a stable update around mid-February 2025.” Other devices, “like the Galaxy S23, S22, S21, and the Galaxy Z series (Z Fold 6, Z Flip 6, Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5, Z Fold 4, Z Flip 4, Z Fold 3, Z Flip 3),” can expect an update by the end of the first quarter, maybe running into April.And then attention will quickly turn to the accelerated release schedule for Android 16 and whether Samsung can catch Pixel this time around. Many of Android 15’s upgrades move the bar on security and privacy and we expect the next OS release to do the same. This is not an area where any user should want to fall behind.One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site’s Terms of Service. We’ve summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:So, how can you be a power user?Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site’s Terms of Service.
