Two handsets from the South Korean smartphone manufacturer, Samsung, the Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) and the Galaxy J3 (2017), are now both receiving the December 2017 Android security patch. This update should fix several vulnerabilities contained in the media framework of Google’s operating system, some of which are classified either as elevation of privilege or denial of service exploits. In addition, this software upgrade also resolves ten security issues found in the Samsung’s proprietary skin. Right now, the software package is rolling out in Italy, Ecuador, and Cambodia, although it is possible that the devices in other countries will also receive the update soon.
The update is currently being distributed automatically, but it may take several days before all smartphones receive the software upgrade. Nonetheless, users also have the option to proceed to the device settings in order to manually trigger the update process. Before the software package is installed, the user should check if there is enough free space in the handset’s internal flash storage in order to temporarily keep the file. To prevent loss of important data, the files and images stored in the device should be backed up to a personal computer or a microSD card. Also, the smartphone should have sufficient battery life to last the entire installation procedure.
The Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) was released in January 2017, and it sports a 4.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels. The handset contains 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal flash storage that can be expanded by a microSD card. It is powered by the Exynos 7870 chipset, which is comprised of an octa-core ARM Cortex A53 64-bit CPUs clocked at up to 1.6GHz and the Mali-T830 MP1 GPU. Meanwhile, the Galaxy J3 (2017) was unveiled in May 2017 and it is powered by the Exynos 7570 chipset, which is composed of a quad-core ARM Cortex A53 CPU with a maximum frequency of 1.4GHz and the Mali-T720 GPU. The handset sports a 5-inch panel with a resolution of 1280 by 720, and it contains 1.5GB of RAM and 16GB of expandable internal flash storage. The rear camera of the smartphone is equipped with a 5-megapixel sensor while the front-facing shooter comes with a 2-megapixel snapper. The Galaxy A3 (2017) originally launched with Android 6.0 Marshmallow pre-installed but it was later upgraded to Android 7.0 Nougat. On the other hand, the Galaxy J3 (2017) already comes with Android 7.0 Nougat when it was unveiled.