Android 11 was released for Pixel phones on 8 September, nearly three months ago. Samsung claims, "The upgrade reinforces Samsung’s commitment to quickly provide the latest innovations to consumers, as part of the pledge to support three generations of OS upgrades for millions of device."
Chinese smartphone maker OPPO, one of three brands owned by B.B.K. Electronics, started releasing beta versions of its own skin for Android 11 — known as ColorOS — back in September.
Samsung said in a statement issued on Thursday that the other countries covered by the upgrade right away would be South Korea and most markets in Europe.
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"The update will be available on Galaxy A devices in the first half of 2021."
The changes between One UI2 (left) One UI3. Courtesy Samsung
The Galaxy A devices are cheaper models, the latest of which, the A42 5G smartphone, was launched in Australia on Thursday.
But the full schedule for updates is available only to users of the Samsung members app, with a footnote to the company statement saying, "The schedule for One UI upgrades is available in Notices on the Samsung Members App, which can be downloaded from the Galaxy Store."
Android 11 includes many new features, including built-in screen recording, a new conversations tab, smart home and media controls, better accessibility, better prediction tools, improved 5G detection, and changes to app permissions which are claimed to improve security and privacy.
“The launch of One UI 3 is just the beginning of our commitment to offering Galaxy consumers the best mobile experiences possible by giving them access to the latest OS innovation, as soon as it’s available,” said Dr T.M. Roh, president and head of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung.
“One UI 3 represents an integral part of our mission to continually create new innovative and intuitive experiences for our consumers throughout their device lifecycle. So when you have a Galaxy device, you have a gateway to new, unimagined experiences for years to come.”
