Samsung is already in 2022 as its January security patch lands for the Galaxy A51

Happy New Year, we guess?

Samsung used to be one of the worst companies when it comes to updates. Back in the TouchWiz days, software support for Samsung phones was absolutely abysmal. But the arrival of One UI saw a change of direction for the company, currently promising up to 3 years of major updates and 5 years of security patches — and actually doing a decent-ish job at rolling them out in a timely manner. Now Samsung's saying "happy New Year" a little early as the first January 2022 security patches for its phones (and specifically, for the Galaxy A51) start becoming available.

Users of Samsung's 2020 mid-ranger in Malaysia and Russia are receiving an OTA update right now (per SamMobile), bumping their phones up to the January patch. This makes it the first Android device to run 2022 software — something that will only sound cool for the next two days. Still, Galaxy A51 owners can now boast that their mid-range phone is running a more recent update than even the latest Pixels.

Galaxy A Series

• Galaxy A51: A515FXXU5EUL3, released December 30

If you're in Malaysia or Russia, you can download the update right now. We haven't heard confirmation of it rolling out in other markets yet, but if it hasn't, it likely will very soon — January is just around the corner anyway. The update should also arrive for other Samsung smartphones, both flagships and mid-rangers, within the next few weeks. We'll keep this list updated as it does.

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