Galaxy Note 7 might get Android Nougat within a few months, but don’t get your hopes up

At a Korean launch event for the new phablet (via Korea Times), the president of Samsung Electronics’ mobile communications division, Koh Dong-jin, said that the recently-announced Galaxy Note 7 should begin receiving Android 7.0 Nougat in the next 2-3 months. If you were waiting for word on updates before pulling the trigger on a pre-order, though, this doesn’t necessarily mean that those of us buying the device stateside will actually get the update before the end of the year…

Here’s the relevant piece of info, via the Korean publication:

Samsung Electronics also said it will offer operating system (OS) updates for the latest Android 7.0 Nougat, in two to three months, after gathering feedback from users.

“It is very important for us to offer up-to-date information with the new OS, but what’s more crucial is to build a stable and seamless platform for users,” Koh said. “That’s why we are planning to do enough beta testing before any OS updates.”

So it seems, if this is to be believed, that after “gathering feedback,” Samsung will begin pushing the next as-yet-unreleased version of Android to the Note 7 — sometime in the next few months. Great news, right? Not exactly. As you probably know, Samsung’s international unlocked devices have a long history of getting first dibs on updates, and that’s likely to stay the case this time around. In other words, some Galaxy Note 7 devices might get the update before the end of the year.

As AP’s David Ruddock noted on Twitter, “Galaxy S6 devices in Korea had Marshmallow a little under 4 months after 6.0 hit. Took some US carriers 5 months longer.” And it’s true. As for one example, the update from Lollipop to Android 6.0 Marshmallow only became available on the AT&T Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ 2 months ago, in June. AT&T’s Galaxy S6 Active just got Marshmallow last month.

I don’t expect things to change dramatically this time around. The only difference this year is that Android Nougat saw its first Developer Previews a few months earlier than usual, which could mean somewhat faster update times for OEMs and carriers. But until we see some real progress, I’m going to assume things are business as usual in the world of super-slow Android updates.