Sprint has started rolling out the latest Android security updates to Samsung Galaxy S5, which brings the phone’s security patch level to March 2017.
The 2014 Samsung flagship joins the likes of Google Pixel, Pixel XL, and Google Nexus 6P as the few devices that have now been updated to the latest monthly security update. This is good news for users of Samsung Galaxy S5 because this is actually all they’ve got – the monthly updates.
Given that the phone is now close to 3 years following its April 2014 release, it will no longer be receiving major Android OS updates. As a result, the latest version only ups the phone’s security patch level to build number G900PVPU3CPEI, which also carries a few bug fixes as well as performance improvements.
Like many other security updates, the latest version rolling out to Sprint’s Samsung Galaxy S5 weighs about 281MB. Interestingly, the carrier recommends that you need to free up as close to 5GB of storage space in order to be able to download and install this security update on your S5. If your 16GB storage is already super full, the carrier advises that you move some files to your cloud storage and delete others.
What is strange here is the amount of storage that you need to install the latest security patch, which is not very heavy. However, don’t expect anything other than the security updates and the aforementioned stability improvements. After the update, your Samsung Galaxy S5 should still be running on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which is the best it can get.
Since this is an OTA update, it may take a few days before all Sprint users of the Galaxy S5 receive the notification to download and install the update. If you can’t wait, you can do it manually by heading to Settings>About phone>System updates and check for updates. Make sure you are connected to the internet via Wi-Fi and the battery is at least 50% full before you start the upgrade process.