Why you might want to skip testing the One UI 5.1.1 beta

As you may be aware, Samsung surprised Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Tab S8 owners at the start of this month with the One UI 5.1.1 beta program. In South Korea, owners of the Z Fold 4 and the 5G-enabled Galaxy Tab S8 models can enroll in the program and test One UI 5.1.1 ahead of the debut of its stable version on the Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, and the Galaxy Tab S9.

We are currently waiting to see if Samsung will expand One UI 5.1.1 beta access to other devices or other markets, but there's a good chance that won't happen. Why? Well, as we exclusively revealed recently, Samsung could start the One UI 6.0 (Android 14) beta program before the end of this month, and the company probably doesn't want to have two beta programs running at the same time.

One UI 6.0 could arrive before you're done testing One UI 5.1.1

And that's also a good reason why you might want to skip the One UI 5.1.1 beta, even if it is available for your device and in your country. One UI 6.0's beta release is on the horizon, and right now we don't know how Samsung will handle the One UI 6.0 beta for those who are running the One UI 5.1.1 beta on their device.

Galaxy Tab S8 owners probably won't get to apply for the One UI 6.0 beta program, but if history is any guide, the Android 14-based One UI 6.0 beta software will be made available for the Galaxy Z Fold 4, in addition to most other flagship Galaxy smartphones from recent years.

Maybe Samsung will complete One UI 5.1.1's public beta testing before the One UI 6.0 beta arrives for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 (or any other device that gets the One UI 5.1.1 beta in the coming days). But right now there's no way to be certain, as it isn't often that we see two new versions of One UI be available for beta testing so close to each other.

Of course, if you really can't stand not trying out One UI 5.1.1 right away if the beta releases in your country, you can go ahead and do it and you can always return to stable Android 13 using firmware files available in our archive. However, rolling back to an older version of Android or One UI requires a factory reset, and you might want to keep that in mind before installing unfinished software on your device.