Samsung has announced that the One UI 3.1 update will be made available to its previous flagship smartphones, namely the Galaxy S20 and Note20 series, Z Fold2 and Z Flip. Additionally, it confirmed that other Galaxy-branded phones also receiving the update includes the S10, Note10, Fold, A71, A51, A90, A80, A70, and A50. The company’s latest firmware first debuted in early January together with its recently released handsets, the Galaxy S21 series.
That being said, Samsung added that apart from the various improvements to its software and interface, certain features previously introduced on its 2021 flagships will also be ported over to the aforementioned devices. These include the new Eye Comfort Shield that automatically adjusts the display’s blue light based on the time of day, Private Share feature that enables users to determine a shared content’s availability and who is allowed to view it, as well as an option to allow users to delete a photo’s metadata.
Audio-wise, the One UI 3.1 update will include support for the Galaxy Buds Pro’s 360 Audio feature, and a new Auto Switch function which allows the aforementioned earbuds, as well as the Galaxy Buds Live and Galaxy Buds Plus to switch between the user’s phone and other compatible Samsung devices automatically.
New photography features include the newly introduced Object Eraser Tool which automatically removes an unwanted distraction from photos via a simple tap, and the Multi Mic Recording feature that allows users to record audio through their phone and connected Samsung Bluetooth earbuds simultaneously. Single Take and other camera tools such as touch autofocus and auto-exposure have been improved in this update as well.
If you recall from our previous report, Samsung had originally released the One UI 3.1 update to the Galaxy S20 FE first, but was pulled a few days after due to unspecified reasons. It is believed that several bugs were not ironed out in the release, which caused several issues such as heavy battery consumption and missing features to occur on the handset. Hopefully the company has managed to rectify the alleged problems in this rollout for the Galaxy S20 FE, as well as other smartphones that are due to receive the upcoming update.
On a related note, the patch note of the recalled update said that other new features from the Galaxy S21 series such as the multi-camera Director’s View mode and a new Google Discover home screen integration were expected to be included in the new firmware. However, these are not mentioned in the recent press release which could mean that the features have been excluded in this upcoming update, or are exclusive to a limited number of devices that are listed.
Samsung says that One UI 3.1 is currently being rolled out to all of the aforementioned Galaxy smartphones starting today, but noted that its expected arrival will differ depending on region. At the time of writing, the update has not reached Malaysian users just yet and could take a few weeks or more before it is released locally.
(Source: Samsung [Press release])
