It's the same software update you heard about recently but without the long wait.
With the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+, you're getting one of the best Android phones today. Samsung went all-in on design, performance, and software. Not everyone wants to be chained down by a carrier, though. So, like it did in 2016, the company released an unlocked model that's free to move between networks.
The U.S. unlocked model of Samsung's 2017 flagship was released at the start of the month, and now it's already getting a software update. A 149.68MB file for the software update is being pushed to devices this week. Included is exactly what we saw the carrier variants get last week.
Software update for the U.S. unlocked Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+. Looks like the same one carrier variants got last week: pic.twitter.com/YS3iAy9cCI
— Justin Herrick (@JustHerrick) June 12, 2017
Samsung says the phones are getting a security upgrade to the June 2017 security patch level, improved stability for external storage, and visual tweaks for Bixby.
You're probably as impressed as we are that the U.S. unlocked model is getting this software update within the same month as the carrier variants. In the past, the time for even the same minor software update to go from the carrier variants to the unlocked model was months. Samsung couldn't explain it then, but with the Galaxy S8 there was verbal commitment that software updates would be executed much better.
When Android O is released this summer, let's hope Samsung gets the software update out to the U.S. unlocked Galaxy S8 around the same time carriers do.
