When it comes to pushing monthly security updates, Samsung as an Android OEM has been doing a terrific job over the last few months. The company’s update schedule has improved to the extent that its now pushing the latest Android security patches to some of its devices even before Google officially publishes the corresponding Android Security Bulletin. Look no further: The shortest month of the year isn’t over yet, but the Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy Fold, and the Galaxy Tab S7 have already received the March 2021 patches. Well, it doesnt seem like Samsung is stopping anytime soon, as the Korean OEM has now started rolling out similar updates for the Galaxy S21 and the Galaxy A8 2018.
Tagged with the version number G99x0ZHU1AUB7, the update for the Galaxy S21 series is intended for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888-powered China/Hong Kong variants. As reported by SamMobile, the size of the incremental update package is about 387MB. Apart from bumping the security patch level, the new firmware also brings overall performance improvements as well as camera improvements.
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Similarly, the company has started rolling out the March 2021 Android security patches for the Galaxy A8 2018 (model number SM-A530F) in the form of software version A530FXXSICUC1. The update is currently available in the XSG region, which is the Korean OEMs internal code for the United Arab emirates.
Interestingly, the new build increments the underlying bootloader version from “H” to “I”. As a consequence, end-users cant perform a downgrade and revert back to an older build after installing this update on their Galaxy A8 units.
Galaxy A8 2018 Forums
As always, the updates are rolling out in batches. You might have to wait a couple of days before the update notification pops up on your device. However, if you are no stranger to manual flashing, you can just skip the waiting queue and use one of our community-developed tools to download the appropriate firmware for your device variant right now from Samsungs update server.
At the time of writing this article, Samsungs Mobile Security portal has not been updated with the details of the March 2021 security bulletin.
