Samsung Galaxy S7  and S7 Edge have received the Android 7 Nougat firmware update. This is possibly the largest firmware update that Samsung has done so far. The roll-out of Nougat for S6 has commenced in several large overseas markets such as Great Britain and Germany. Furthermore, Asus Zenfone 3 has also been upgraded to the latest version of Android. The Android Nougat update adds a lot of useful functionality to Android devices. Thus, upgrading to the latest version does add value to most users. There’s obviously a small learning curved involved, but it’s typically not an especially steep one for most users.

Samsung Galaxy S7 Upgrade

Samsung has baked in several other upgrades in addition to the standard Nougat update. The most important Samsung specific updates are

• Samsung pass – for easier login.
• Sleep button – reduces background memory consumption for apps that the users “put to sleep”.
• Samsung Cloud – up to 15 MB free space in the cloud.
• Split screen – two apps use separate screens.

Furthermore, the new UI employs Note 7’s praised Grace UX.  Hence, using Samsung Galaxy S7 with the new UI almost feels like a new phone. The upgraded S7 phone doesn’t resemble the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8, but still offers a completely new and fresh experience.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Upgrade

Samsung is also busy pushing out Android Nougat to older Galaxy S6 phones. There’s no specific date set yet for New Zealand that we’re aware of, but the operating system upgrade should arrive here during the first half of the year. The main question is whether it will include Samsung payments. Samsungs new payment system requires either ASB Virtual Pay or ANZ Mobile Pay. One of these two apps has to be installed and configured for Samsung Pay to work.