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Samsung may be great at phone updates, but its watches are lagging far behind
- Samsung’s Galaxy Watches haven’t received security updates in months.
- Some Galaxy Watch models are stuck on updates that are over eight months old.
- The One UI 6 Watch update on Wear OS 5 is also not in sight for older Galaxy Watch models.
Samsung is undoubtedly the best when it comes to timely and long-term updates for its phones, but Galaxy Watch updates are far from satisfactory right now. The current state of Samsung’s smartwatch updates is pretty bleak. As GalaxyClub points out, many Galaxy Watches are running security updates from months ago. Officially, all Wear OS Galaxy Watches are supposed to receive quarterly security patches, but this system is running way behind.
For instance, the Galaxy Watch FE, Galaxy Watch 7, and Galaxy Watch Ultra are still stuck on the June 1 security update, which is over 5 months old. The gap is even larger for older Galaxy Watch models like the Galaxy Watch 4, 5, and 6, which are currently on the March security patch. That means they haven’t been updated in over eight months.
Wear OS 5 delays and user frustration
In May, Samsung announced that the One UI 6 Watch update based on Wear OS 5 would be made available to all Galaxy Watch models running Wear OS. However, we’re now in November and only the Galaxy Watch 7 and Watch Ultra run Wear OS 5 as of now. While Samsung did roll out the Wear OS 5 update for the Galaxy Watch 6 and Watch 6 Classic in October, it hasn’t yet fully released for all users. In fact, it looks like only testers who signed up for the beta update received the software on their Watch 6 units.
Are you happy with the pace of updates on your Galaxy Watch?
“Samsung are really starting to piss me off with these updates. Why can’t they follow Apple’s lead & release updates globally at the same time?” a frustrated user wrote on Reddit.
“My Watch 6 hasn’t even had an update since March this year. It’s absolutely ridiculous at this point,” said another Galaxy Watch user.
“Samsung seems to try to copy Apple in every other regard, except the most important thing which matters to many of us… Firmware Updates,” snapped another Redditor.
For what it’s worth Google is also struggling to update older Pixel Watches with the latest security update and the Wear OS 5 software. The company paused the Wear OS 5 rollout in September owing to a bug and promised a fix in October but hasn’t posted any updates since then.