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  • Update pulled

Since older Galaxy flagships received One UI 3.0 only recently, we weren't exactly expecting Samsung to also push the Galaxy S21’s newer 3.1 build to those phones anytime soon. However, the company decided to give its existing customers a pleasant surprise by giving the rollout an early kick-start. Right now the Galaxy S20 FE is already getting its One UI 3.1 update, leaving behind its more premium siblings from last year.

Many Galaxy S20 FE 5G owners from Europe took to Reddit earlier today to report about receiving a 1.7GB update that includes One UI 3.1 and the February security patch. With this build, you can expect Google Discover integration on the home screen, Google Home device controls in quick settings, and several new cross-app video call effects, among other things. Early adopters have noted that certain S21 features, like Director’s View, haven’t been ported to the budget flagship.

SamMobile could confirm that the update has so far gone live in European markets including the Baltic region, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Nordic, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. If you’re in any of these countries holding a Galaxy S20 FE 5G, you can head to the software update section in the settings app to look for the update notification.

It’s worth noting that only the 5G model of the S20 FE is receiving One UI 3.1 as of now, while we have no news on the 4G-only variant. Considering the update is already available for the Tab S7/S7+ and is now hitting non-flagship phones, we’re hopeful that more Samsung handsets will join the list sooner rather than later.

UPDATE: 2021/02/12 4:33am PST BY KARANDEEP SINGH

Update pulled

According to a report by SamMobile, Samsung has stalled the S20 FE’s One UI 3.1 update within days of its release. We don’t have an official word on exactly what prompted this decision, but a small subset of Reddit users started facing performance issues, faster battery drain, and unreliable SMS notifications after installing the latest build.

Something similar happened just last month when Samsung had to pull the Galaxy S10’s Android 11 update over some heating and camera problems, which took a couple of weeks to get fixed. In the absence of a formal announcement from Samsung, you can expect a comparable timeline in the S20 FE’s case as well.

UPDATE: 2021/02/19 7:34am PST BY KARANDEEP SINGH

Resumed

Samsung has resumed distribution of the update. This re-release is given the same One UI 3.1 build number as before, so it's unlikely that any software bug was behind the pause. Instead, it's possible Samsung may have wanted to hold off on the S20 FE’s One UI 3.1 update until some of its more premium flagships got theirs first. As before, only the 5G model of the S20 FE is being updated, while users with LTE-only variants will have to wait a little while longer.

Source: Samsung, Reddit (1), (2), SamMobile

Thanks: Moshe