Samsung Galaxy S7’s Nougat beta might end soon, but how long will it take to roll out?

We could be nearing the end of Samsung’s Nougat beta for the Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. Beta participants over at Weibo have received such word from Samsung, anyway.

So, let the questions begin: when does the upgrade arrive? Well, that’s a tough one to answer. Let’s consider a couple of points:

• When Samsung ends the Nougat beta, that only implies that they have worked through enough issues, bugs, and feature implementations to be comfortable shipping it out. Even if Samsung doesn’t find any major issues in their last round of testing, it could be some time before they initiate anything.
• Samsung was actually supposed to have ended the beta program by mid-December and we thought that would happen with the 4th update as it landed squarely within that timeline. We’re on the 5th by now, and January 2017 is just a few days away.
• Once it does finally roll out, it’s likely going to take a while for most folks to get it. Those in South Korea and those with unlocked models will surely get it first, but if you’re on a carrier-branded model then you’ll need to look to them for the goods, and we all know that can delay updates by months.
• It’s not wise to assume history will always repeat itself, but some Galaxy S6 owners (those in the US, for starters) had to wait half a year from the time of the first Marshmallow rollout to get it on their phones.

So, all of that is to say there’s no telling when, exactly, we’ll see it yet. Our hope is that even though Samsung has taken longer than expected, they’ll still be able to at least meet our prior expectations.

Our pipe dream view is that we’ll miraculously see the update arrive on even carrier models around the same time as those with unlocked ones, especially considering Samsung is running the beta on carrier phones in the US. In any case, we’ll alert you once the good times get rolling.

[via SamMobile]