To start working on new firmware, you need a special tool - PDK (Platform Development Kit). This tool is created by Google for every new version Android. Once the PDK is ready, Google sends it to Samsung and other smartphone and tablet manufacturers.
Then Google announces new Android for users, and Samsung starts working on the firmware. On average, its creation takes 6 months, but the exact release date is unknown.
Samsung cannot start working on the firmware until it receives necessary tools from Google.
You can't get the firmware right away as soon as you hear about it - it needs to be adapted for a specific smartphone or tablet.
Why is the exact release date of the new firmware unknown?
Before answering this question, let's consider what the firmware consists of. The firmware consists of several parts:
Source- a new Android with basic functions, which is created by Google. This part cannot be immediately installed on any smartphone or tablet, because adapting the code to a specific device requires at least drivers.
If we imagine the creation of firmware using the example of building a building, then the source code is the frame of the new structure.
Drivers- help connect Android and the components that make up a smartphone or tablet: processors, memory, buttons, connectors, sensors and other chips. Drivers are written by chip manufacturers - Samsung and companies that produce only certain parts.
If manufacturers do not write a driver for at least one chip for the new firmware, the device will not be able to work normally with it. If the manufacturer of the communication chip with mobile network If the driver fails to write, the smartphone will not be able to make calls. If the camera manufacturer does not write a driver, the smartphone will not take photographs. The firmware will not be released until all manufacturers write working drivers. Creating drivers takes 2 - 4 months.
Drivers are the cement for connecting the frame (Android) and the foundation (components), without it the building will collapse.
Device manufacturer services- are responsible for the appearance of the desktop, menu items, programs, unique applications and functions. Without them, all tablets and smartphones would look the same and have the same set of functions. This part of the code is written by Samsung.
Services are finishing materials: facing bricks, wallpaper, tiles, paint, parquet.
After all the parts are ready, Samsung's task is to combine them and make them workable. At this stage, the firmware is thoroughly tested to find and eliminate all errors. Total testing - several thousand times.
The final firmware must be approved by Google - it’s like accepting a building by a state commission. If she doesn't like something, the process continues until the desired option appears.
Nobody calls the exact date the appearance of the firmware because: a) several companies are working on it; b) the process lasts until complete adaptation and elimination of errors.
For which smartphones and tablets will the firmware be released?
New firmware is released for flagship devices within 18 months from the moment they go on sale.
Flagship devices - smartphones and tablets of the Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab S series, Galaxy Note, some mid-segment models.
New firmware is not released for all devices.
Over time, firmware for a certain device is no longer released.
Below is a preliminary list of models that will receive updates to Android 9 (Pie), with approximate dates. Model list and release dates are subject to change.
Already received the update:
How to find out that new firmware has been released
If new firmware is available for your smartphone or tablet, a notification will appear at the top of the display.
A similar notification will appear if you connect the device to your computer and run the program Smart Switch.
If there is no notification, then: a) the firmware has not yet been released; b) there is something wrong with the device (the current firmware is installed incorrectly or modified, the device is not for sale in Russia). In the first case - wait, in the second - contact service center.
Where to download new firmware
Samsung does not make firmware publicly available. New firmware is installed through the device menu or program Smart Switch.
The firmware cannot be downloaded from the Samsung website.
How to update firmware
We have done detailed instructions separate article.
How to return to the previous firmware
Officially, without loss of warranty - no way. Therefore, we recommend that you make an informed decision before upgrading.
Changes in the new firmware
Not all changes that are in the source code will necessarily appear in the new firmware. A detailed list of changes appears before downloading each new firmware.
Changes that can be made.
Not long ago, the line of Samsung “A” series smartphones was updated. There were enough changes to talk about them.
Appearance
The design of Samsung smartphones has always left few people indifferent. This is what happened this time too. The company has achieved a stylish but not flashy design largely thanks to the pleasant combination of glass and metal in the body, each facet of which refracts light very richly. Especially the front panel with 2.5D glass and back wall, made of glass, gracefully bending closer to the side edges. When it comes to this phone, you can easily call its design premium.
If we continue to develop the theme of the case, we can note the traditional mechanical Home button under the screen. The button is combined with a fingerprint scanner, which works quite quickly, but is not always easy to configure. Due to the fact that the button, and therefore the scanner itself, is very narrow, during setup a message often appears asking you to still move your finger, and not just place it in the same position.
The Volume and Power keys are located on different sides of the phone, which is convenient, and you don’t have to look for them and remember which is higher and which is lower. Also striking are the two SIM card trays. In the Galaxy A5 2017, the main SIM card is installed with right side body, and on top there is a double tray. The top tray holds a second SIM card and a memory card. Now it will be even more convenient to use a second SIM card, since you won’t have to choose between it and a memory card with a capacity of up to 256 GB.
What Samsung has excelled at in their smartphones is the level of water resistance. This is what happened this time too. Galaxy A5 is IP68 rated. That is, it is not only one hundred percent protected from dust, but is also able to spend up to 30 minutes in fresh water at a depth of up to one and a half meters without any consequences. This is always not superfluous and very pleasantly distinguishes the smartphone from direct competitors in its price segment. By the way, this phone costs from 22,000 rubles, which is quite a bit for a quality phone.
In conclusion, the features of the case can be noted that it has three colors, including black, blue and gold. Although the gold color is not even very gold. At least not so conspicuous.
Display
The display diagonal is 5.2 inches, which is quite large considering the dimensions of the smartphone itself. The display resolution is predictable FullHD, and the matrix, of course, is SUPER AMOLED. The display is nice and bright, as it should be given its specs, but what's particularly pleasing is that it changes color significantly less when viewed from an angle than before. Among the pleasant additions, we can note the Always on display function that has reached younger Samsung models. Now you can display information about the date, time, battery status and basic notifications on the Galaxy A5 screen. Considering the features of AMOLED displays, this is doubly convenient, since it not only frees the owner from the obligation to periodically take the phone from the table and turn it on, but also does not consume much battery. At the same time, the clock constantly changes its position on the screen slightly. This can be easily explained from the point of view technological features AMOLED displays.
Camera
Naturally, the phone has two cameras. Both are now 16 megapixels with f/1.9 aperture. The pictures taken with the main camera come out very good. Actually, the Korean giant is famous for its cameras in smartphones. In bright light, the pictures turn out to be very clear and saturated, but if you dim the lighting a little and choose a subject with insufficient contrast, the camera may begin to make mistakes. The number of possible camera settings will please many who like to tinker with manual modes. There's even a food mode that lets you take a photo with a clear center, slightly blurred edges, and special brightness settings. The main camera not only does not protrude, but, on the contrary, is even slightly recessed into the body, but it’s a pity that there was no place for optical stabilization.
Iron
Powering the performance is the 1.9GHz Exynos 7880 processor and 700MHz Mali T-860 graphics. Random access memory The phone has 3 GB. The hardware provides more than enough performance for applications and almost enough for everything, even the coolest games. There is a decrease in frame rate, but it is not always critical. So the gameplay will not be marred by freezes and slowdowns. In the AnTuTu benchmark test, the Galaxy A5 scores about 60,000 points.
It is worth noting that the smartphone predictably runs Android 6, but should soon receive an update to the seventh version of the green robot.
The amount of built-in memory is quite large and amounts to 32 GB. But only 23 GB of them is available to the user. Although this is also enough for a very large number of photographs and more than one album of your favorite artist. But it’s still nice that it is possible to install memory cards up to 256 GB, which I talked about earlier.
The sound in the headphones is traditional for Samsung. There is nothing to add or subtract here. But the external speaker turned out to be very interesting. First, it’s worth noting where it is located. It is located on the side, just above the Power button. An original and convenient solution. Now you definitely won’t be able to accidentally close it with your hand in any orientation of the device. True, the large holes in the housing for this speaker look a little strange, but it sounds very good. Naturally, there is no bass, but there are distinct high frequencies, which is nice. The volume, although not low, is not prohibitive. We will assume that it is above average.
The Samsung Galaxy A5 2017 was launched earlier this year with 3GB of RAM and a 5.2 inch Full HD Screen. Despite a newer version of Android 7.0 Nougat being available at the time of the release, the Galaxy A5 2017 was launched with Android 6.0 Marshmallow. However, it was announced that the device would be getting the update later and as promised, the Android 7.0 Nougat update is now rolling out to the Galaxy A5 2017 users across various regions.
The official OTA update of Android Nougat comes with the firmware version number A520FXXUBQI5 and it weighs approximately 1.3GB in size. You can check for the OTA update by going to Settings>About Phone>Software Update. If the update is not available yet, you can either wait till it reaches your device or you can follow the below instructions to manually install Android 7.0 Nougat firmware on Galaxy A5 2017 right now.
Android 7.0 Nougat brings with it a lot of new and interesting features like the Multi-window mode, improved doze functionality, revamped notification panel and settings app. The update is also expected to improve the overall performance of the Galaxy A5 2017 and to reduce app loading and installation times due to the new API built into it.
Download Android 7.0 Nougat Firmware for Galaxy A5 (2017) SM-A520F
We have uploaded 4 stock firmwares for the following countries on Mega which you can download from below. Please note that these firmwares are only for SM-A520F model of the Galaxy A5 that’s not locked to a network carrier.
In case you don’t find the firmware for your country below, you can download them from .
Note:
Having downloaded the firmware, you need to unzip or extract the downloaded zip. Inside the extracted folder, you will get the following files:
- B.L.: BL_A520FXXU2BQH4_CL11940524_QB14483550_REV00_user_ low_ship.tar.md5
- AP: AP_A520FXXU2BQH4_CL11940524_QB14483550_REV00_user_ low_ship_meta.tar.md5
- C.P.: CP_A520FXXU2BQG7_CP7025068_CL11926776_QB14345799_R EV00_user_low_ship.tar
- C.S.C.: you can either flash
- C.S.C. _OXE_A520FOXE2BQG7_CL11926776_QB14345799_REV00_use r_low_ship.tar to (it’ll wipe all data before the first boot)
- HOME_CSC _OXE_A520FOXE2BQG7_CL11926776_QB14345799_REV00_use r_low_ship.tar (it’ll not wipe your phone’s data)
Install Android 7.0 Nougat Firmware on Galaxy A5 (2017) SM-A520F
Now here are the Android Nougat firmware installation instructions.
- First, begin by downloading the which would be used to install the firmware on your Galaxy device.
- Now extract the downloaded zip file to a folder on the desktop of your PC.
- After extracting, download and install the on your PC.
- Now enable the USB debugging option on your device by going to Settings>Developer options and then enable.
- As a precautionary measure, backup all the important data on your device to a safe place as some data might get deleted while installing the firmware.
- Now download the respective firmware for your region and extract it to a new folder. Once extracted, you will find a file with .tar.md5 extension.
- Now you have to boot your Galaxy A5 (2017) into the Download mode. You can do this by switching off your device and then holding the Volume Down + Home + Power buttons simultaneously for a few seconds. Once you see a screen with an exclamation mark press the Volume up button to enter into the download mode.
- Now open the folder where you extracted the Odin files.
- Then launch Odin.
- Now connect your phone and your PC using a USB cable.
- Once the connection is successfully established, the ID:COM on the Odin screen will be highlighted.
- Click the Options tab in Odin and make sure that on the Auto Reboot and F. Reset Time options are selected in Odin.
- Now click on the B.L. button in Odin and add the firmware file that starts with B.L. in its name. The add the AP file to the AP section. Also, add the corresponding firmware files to the C.P. and C.S.C. slots.
- Once the firmware file is loaded, your Odin screen will look similar to the below screenshot.
- Once the installation is complete, a PASS! message will be displayed and your device will automatically reboot
- Since it is the first boot it might take more time than a normal boot so wait patiently till the boot process is completed.
Once the boot process is completed you will now be entered into the initial setup screen of Android 7.0 Nougat on your Galaxy A5 (2017) SM-A520F.
