Update The New Samsung Galaxy S21 Just Launched, Is It Time to Throw Away Your Old Phone?

Samsung officially released the January 2026 security patch for the Galaxy S21 line (photo: x @mobilissimo)

JAKARTA - Samsung officially released the January 2026 security patch for the Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra series. This update marks the end of the long journey of the flagship series, as well as the last regular security package received by users after five years of full support since its launch in early 2021.

This step is in line with Samsung's initial promise when releasing the S21 series, namely providing operating system (OS) updates for four generations and security support for five years. With the arrival of the device in January 2026, the routine maintenance cycle for one of Samsung's most popular mobile series is declared to be completed gradually.

This January 2026 security update brings a total of 55 security hole fixes, consisting of 25 fixes from Google for the Android core system as well as 30 special fixes from Samsung Mobile for the One UI interface. Among the dozens of patches, there is one fix that is categorized as very critical and dozens of others are high-risk to protect user personal data from the latest potential cyber attacks.

The rollout of this update has begun in South Korea with the build number G99*NKSSCHZA5 and is confirmed to spread to other regions, including Indonesia, in the next few days. Although regular support ends, Samsung still has the possibility to release emergency updates in the future if a very fatal security hole is found, but users will no longer receive monthly or quarterly updates on a scheduled basis.

The retirement of support for the Galaxy S21 is a reminder for users to start considering migration to newer devices to ensure the security of sensitive data such as banking applications and digital privacy. For comparison, the latest flagship series such as the Galaxy S24 now has a much longer support policy, namely up to seven years of system and security updates.