S21 Updates

[Jami13]

I understand Vodafone have a (frankly quite abysmal) policy of ignoring discussion around their firmware updates but the situation with the S21 range is very poor.

This is a brand new handset range which launched with a number of issues affecting performance, battery life including overheating, and camera performance.

The 3rd OTA fix in a month has just been pushed out by Samsung, none of which have been processed and rolled out by Vodafone yet.

Fair enough, older devices being updated to new versions of the OS isn't urgent, they're working okay already, but new device stability fixes affecting performance, security and device health should be prioritised and fast-tracked. Remove the Vodafone software and roll that out separately if necessary, nobody uses it anyway.

This is my first direct-from Vodafone handset and between this and the 'hidden' price hike coming in April I'm already regretting it.

[WelshPaul]

I haven't purchased a handset from a mobile provider in years, I mean years! Locked to their network, customised firmware that usually removes features and ads bloatware, lack of firmware updates and these days you even end up paying more in the long term than buying sim free and go down the sim only route.

[Jami13]

Yeah this was my first in years as well but the discounts I got from Vodafone this time meant that the price was the more or less same as getting the phone from Samsung and a separate sim-only deal, with no upfront or final payments like on the Samsung Upgrade Programme.

I didn't realise until now that Vodafone were so bad at supporting their devices though, I'd have chosen differently if I had.

[WelshPaul]

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@Jami13 wrote:

I didn't realise until now that Vodafone were so bad at supporting their devices though, I'd have chosen differently if I had.

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To be fair it's not just Vodafone that are bad at this, they all are. O2 being the better out of the bunch!

Unfortunately your options are now limited. If it was me, I would look at flashing the phone with UK Generic firmware but doing so comes with a risk and will probably void your warranty too.

[BandOfBrothers]

Although I appreciate it's not always possible for a person to buy their phone's direct from the manufacturer due to disposable income @Jami13 I'm the same as @WelshPaul as in that's how I buy my phone's.

Some are experiencing some issues with their Samsung Galaxy s21 phone's which I'm seeing on the Samsung eu forum where I post regularly also , but it's a difficult one to pin point as we all set up our phone's differently, and have different apps and preference settings both for the phone and app settings.

Along with some phone's having different firmware versions and csc depending on if the phone is branded or unbranded.

Then there is the soc inside them.

Samsung UK use their own Exynos version which has been known to not perform as effectively and efficiently, and not Optomise as well as the Qualcomm Snapdragon socversion that other regions put in their phone.

In my personal opinion the Snapdragon is like night and day to Exynos.

I have read many Tech articles on this, viewed YouTube reviews and experienced this myself when I purchased a N20 Ultra 5G from Samsung UK and sent it back due to optimisation issues,  and imported a N20 Ultra 5G from Hong Kong that has the Snapdragon 865+ in it.

What I suggest to people having issues is to Put the phone in Safe Mode which disables your downloaded app's but let's your stock app's keep working. If the issues stop then this highlights a downloaded app as the possible issue. Come out of Safe Mode and start deleting your most recent downloaded app's one at a time until it stops. 

And Clear your phone's System Cache Files by turning your phone Off and then from a set series of button presses go into the phone's System Files and clear the cache. No information is lost this way. You may need to insert your headphones or hook upto a computer with your data cable to get to this menu on the phone. 

Samsung Members App has a Help Me section that allows a person to send feedback direct to Samsung Development Team so hopefully if enough people send similar feedback then Samsung will take note.

But as a branded phone i.e supplied by Vodafone will only get an update once Vodafone themselves are happy it won't conflict with their network features and added flavour to the firmware it won't get an update.

There are ways of adding a Custom Rom so updates come from Samsung directly but this can sometimes affect network driven features and must be applied correctly.