I can literally give someone a little heart attack right now, if I tell them their 2014’s Android phone is now getting a brand new monthly security patch. Well, the probability of the mishap is actually very large – thanks to the ever-complicated naming scheme of Asus.
Yes, that’s right! The Taiwanese OEM has created a vicious circle by reusing the same naming pattern in their product portfolio. Allow me to elaborate a little: 2014’s Intel Atom powered ZenFone 5 is part of the first generation ZenFone (more of a ZenFone 1.5).
On the other hand, 2018’s Snapdragon 636 powered ZenFone 5 is fifth generation in this lineup, thus we should better call it ZenFone 5.0. See, you can easily get rid of of these tangled monikers.
Last month, Asus rolled out a hotfix OTA for 2018’s ZenFone 5 which contained the fix for missing HD graphics option in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). However, it did not update the security patch level.
Looks like they were busy preparing the next iteration, as the July security patch paired with various fixes for ZenFone 5 has been announced by Asus officials earlier today. The version number of the new build is 16.0615.1907.105, a significant bump from the previous 16.0615.1905.102 build.
The update will be gradually available on both global and Russian ZenFone 5 (ZE620KL) units in the coming weeks.
Call it a coincidence, but another Snapdragon 636 powered phone is now getting July security patches. The vendor is not Asus though, but it’s FIH made Nokia 6.1 Plus (also known as Nokia X6 in China).
Unlike Asus ZenFone 5, Nokia phones runs vanilla Android One firmware, which ensures regular monthly updates. The internal software version for the phone has been updated to V3.54H with the new build.
On the other hand, Indian Nokia 8.1 units are reportedly getting the up-to-date security patch too! As a matter of fact, the phone is sold as Nokia X7 in China – making it a slightly elder sibling of Nokia X6/Nokia 6.1 Plus.
The Snapdragon 710 powered phone now gets software version V2.59J as part of the July security patches. For both Nokia phones, the size of the incremental OTA packages are less than 120 MB.
It’s good to see that more and more phones are getting the updated security patches, albeit with some delays. We know that OEMs have their hands on those patches weeks ago from the public release, thus a quicker rollout is all regular user want.
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Kingshuk De
896 Posts
I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.
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