Samsung has inarguably improved a lot over the years in supporting its smartphones and tablets with the latest software updates. A few months ago, the Korean OEM even pledged to provide four major Android OS updates and up to five years of security updates for its high-end devices. As if beating Google at its own game wasn't enough, the company has now updated a seven-year-old smartphone with a new software update.
The Samsung Galaxy J7, a phone released back in 2015, has started getting a fresh new software update in multiple Asian regions. The new release, which has firmware version J700FXXU4BVG2 (for the SM-J700F model) / J700HXXU3BVG2 (for the SM-J700H model), brings GPS stability improvements to the phone. Unfortunately, the update packages do not appear to improve upon the April 2018 (August 2017 for the J700H edition) security patch level that signaled the end of these Galaxy J7 variants some three years ago.
Other than the GPS fixes, it’s actually unclear just what the OTA updates actually contain. It’s highly likely that the new firmware provides protection against a critical bug or security exploit, which is why the software is being patched for the few people out there still rocking the phone.
Obviously the latest firmware update doesn’t change the version of Android OS. The Galaxy J7's aforementioned models continue to run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, that too with the pre-One UI and Samsung Experience-era TouchWiz skin. In other words, the latest firmware update claims to add GPS-related stabilization code, but the security patch level remains unchanged.
We can’t imagine it will be much fun using such an old device at this stage of 2022, especially as most affordable Android devices will offer far superior performance, battery life, and features. However, if you are still clinging on to the Galaxy J7, then you should see the update appearing over the coming days and weeks, depending on your region.