According to a report from ZDNet, Samsung is finally bringing monthly Android security updates to one of its most neglected flagship smartphone variants: unlocked US devices. An e-mail from the company says it has "resolved the challenges" with releasing monthly updates, and it is now "committed" to releasing updates every month for "unlocked Galaxy devices" in the US.

Unlocked devices are usually safe bets as the best models for updates because they are free from carrier interference. This means there is one less stumbling block in the usual "Google ⇒ OEM ⇒ Carrier" software handoff. In Samsung's case though, remember there are two major versions of the Galaxy S7 (and most other Samsung flagships): the "international" version with a Samsung Exynos SoC and the "US" version with a Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC. For the "international" Exynos version, the conventional wisdom of "unlocked models get updates first" holds true.


In the US, Samsung is all-in on the carrier-driven business model. The vast majority of the Snapdragon models are sold through carriers, so the unlocked Snapdragon models are the black sheep of the Samsung family. You usually can't even buy an unlocked US Samsung device at launch—for the Galaxy S7, you had to wait three months for a carrier-free version to become available.
As a result, the unlocked Snapdragon Samsung phones are usually pretty poorly supported. Until now, they haven't been getting monthly security updates; users have been stuck with "quarterly" security updates. They are also usually last to get major software updates. The carrier Galaxy S7s got Android 7.0 Nougat in February and March—Samsung's typical six-month update time (and perpetually a version behind the latest version of Android, which now is 7.1)—but US unlocked devices still haven't been updated.
Now at least, starting with the Galaxy S7, unlocked US Samsung flagships should get monthly security updates like all the other versions. It seems like you'll still be last in line for updates though—the US unlocked S7 is still waiting on Nougat.