Although we’ve all adjusted pretty quickly to the modern seven-year software support standard set by Samsung and Google, it’s easy to forget it’s still a relatively new shift. There are still plenty of devices with four years of OS upgrades set to age out over the next few years, and today, it’s the Galaxy S21 FE’s turn to graduate into security patches exclusively.
As reported by SamMobile, Samsung is starting to roll out an upgrade to One UI 8 for Galaxy S21 FE devices in Thailand and Vietnam. Software version G990EXXUIHYJ2 brings along the company’s take on Android 16, and while it’s a fairly minor change compared to One UI 7’s visual overhaul earlier this year, some of the changes — Now Brief improvements, lock screen changes, improved split-screen support — are welcome improvements. Perhaps reflecting the minor jump from Android 15 to Android 16, this patch weighs in at just 2GB.
There’s no exact timing on when Samsung might push out this update to other regions, but usually, a global rollout isn’t too far behind. Android 16 is the Galaxy S21 FE’s final OS upgrade, with this upcoming January marking four years since its early 2022 release date, but owners aren’t without some time left before their phones officially reach end-of-life. Samsung should continue to push security patches to this device for another 15 months or so.
The Galaxy S21 FE was an odd-duck of a device, arriving on store shelves less than two months before the proper Galaxy S22 series. It failed to capture much of the momentum of its direct predecessor thanks to a higher price tag, and since its launch, we’ve seen Samsung struggle to find a proper identity for the FE-lineup as a whole. The company’s most recent entry, the Galaxy S25 FE, was quietly released just a couple of months ago.
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