A Samsung Electronics Co. Galaxy S7 Edge smartphones is displayed at the company's Galaxy Zone store in the COEX mall in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017. (Photo : Getty Images/ SeongJoon Cho)
Android 7.0 Nougat update might be rolling out for Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge users in the United States and some select regions but a wider deployment of the same is unlikely to happen in the next few months. New reports indicated that international users of the same flagship handsets will have to wait a little longer for Nougat, perhaps beyond June 2017.
Specifically, the Android Nougat worldwide update for the Galaxy S7 Edge will not happen anytime soon, Android Headlines reported, adding that the same likely applies to the regular GS7. The site pointed to a screenshot of a recent chat exchanges between an S7 Edge owner and a Samsung tech support representative as source of its information.
In the conversation, the Sammy fan identified as Mr. John informed the Samsung rep that his device is still in Android Marshmallow and fired off the question: When is Nougat coming to town? And the answer was: "The closest timescale I can advise is from the month of April till June ... This year."
Phone Arena picked up too on the same report first published by XDA Developers and pointed out that the GS7 Edge in question was purchased from Singapore. And that could mean that Android Nougat for Samsung's 2016 flagship phones will not be delivered as promised not only in the country but in most regions around the world.
The only exceptions would be in the U.S. and in South Korea, where Samsung is headquartered.
"There's a high chance that Singapore is not the only country where Android 7.0 Nougat for the Galaxy S7 edge will be available many months after the initial release. The same might be applied to the regular Galaxy S7 as well," Phone Arena added on its report.
And "many months" could translate into a long wait that likely will extend beyond the June deadline provided by the Samsung representative.
There will be many disappointing scenarios for Samsung on this. One is that the Galaxy S8, rumored to come out April 2017, will be the first to rock Android Nougat and not any of the GS7 variants. And the likelihood is there that Google will have already revealed the follow up to Nougat but the latter is yet to be absorbed by the majority of GS7 users.
Normally, Google unveils the next Android version, likely to be codenamed Android O or version 8.0 this 2017, during its annual I/O Developers Conference that is held late May or early June.
As of writing, Samsung has no official word on the matter.
