The latest Android update for the Galaxy Note 8 was designed to improve the stability of the phablet’s 4G LTE functionality as it specifically addresses a bug that occasionally caused interruptions of such connections, as revealed by a changelog published by Samsung earlier this week. The update appears to be rolling out on a global level, with its distribution officially starting on Wednesday, 15 days after the Seoul-based phone maker launched the latest security patch for the same handset.
As is sometimes the case with minor software revisions, the latest build of the Galaxy Note 8’s firmware doesn’t come with a new version number and is still identified as the N950FXXU2BQKG build. The lack of change in this regard indicates that Galaxy Note 8 owners who still haven’t downloaded the previous update will receive and install both at once, though it’s still unclear whether Samsung also packaged them together for such use cases. The company’s changelog mentions a number of other bug fixes included with the latest firmware revision but doesn’t elaborate on the matter, suggesting the issues that were addressed by the new software were either widely underreported by users or weren’t affecting a significant number of devices to warrant an individual mention. The original equipment manufacturer is distributing the update as an over-the-air software package that’s rolling out in stages and should be available for download on a worldwide level in the coming days. Owners of locked, carrier-specific variants of the Galaxy Note 8 will have to wait for their mobile service providers to optimize the new firmware before pushing it out on their networks.
While not as popular as Samsung’s Galaxy S8 lineup, the Galaxy Note 8 is still one of the best-selling Android smartphones of the year and has been dominating in a number of the company’s key markets, including its home country of South Korea. Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S9 series isn’t expected to be a major upgrade over the S Pen-equipped phablet, with likely the biggest difference between the two being their chipset(s) of choice. The Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 Plus are said to be launching at MWC 2018 in late February before being released in March.