Samsung set to bring Galaxy S21 features to older phones — coming to Australia soon

When Samsung released the Galaxy S21 line up last month they introduced a heap of new functionality to their Android skin, One UI 3.1. Now it seems that they are rolling some of these changes into the updates to their older phones, in particular the Galaxy S20 and Note 20.

At this stage there are five key features from the Galaxy S21 set to make the leap back in time to the S20 (and hopefully more):

• Enhanced Single Take which allows you to capture still images while simultaneously capturing a video.
• Multi Mic Recording — allows you to capture audio from both the phone and a connected Bluetooth accessory.
• Object Eraser — an editing tool located in Samsung’s Gallery app to help you remove blemishes/objects from your photos with the aid of an AI algorithm.
• Eye Comfort Shield which can be used to limit the amount of blue light the display on your phone puts out.
• Private Share which is a feature that adds an expiry date to images you share with/send to other people.

Other notable inclusions are improved touch autofocus and autoexposure controller giving you the ability to swipe on the display on the camera app to brighten the image before capturing it. One UI 3.1 also adds the ability to remove metadata from images before you share them helping you keep your image details private.

Of course, many of the features of One UI 3.1 on the Galaxy S21 devices are hardware dependent so don’t expect to get features that require additional cameras etc. In saying that the hardware of the S20 and the S21, both normal and Plus models, share similar specs so don’t be surprised if more than the five above appear on the older devices in the coming months.

TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics said:

“Samsung is committed that our devices continue to deliver the up-to-date mobile experiences throughout their lifecycle. Following the announcement of 3-generation Android OS upgrades for select Galaxy devices, we ensure to equip our consumers with powerful new features as soon as they are available. Our One UI 3.1 update marks an important next step in that mission.” 

The update is set to arrive on the Galaxy S20 series (Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, and Galaxy S20 Ultra, Galaxy S20 FE) and Galaxy Note20 series (Galaxy Note20, Galaxy Note20 Ultra), in addition to the Galaxy Z Fold2 and Galaxy Z Flip series in the coming weeks. Expect it to arrive in Australia within a few months. Keep an eye out for it on your Samsung phone.