With the Galaxy S20 FE, Samsung is making it abundantly clear that it views its fourth Galaxy S20 model as a flagship smartphone, and the company isn't wrong. Where the Galaxy S10 Lite was a mid-range phone with flagship elements (and a good one at that), the Galaxy S20 Fan Edition offers much of the same hardware as the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+ with just a few compromises that allow Samsung to sell it for as low as $699 for the 5G variant in the US.
In addition to sharing much of its hardware features with the original Galaxy S20 trio (same processors, 120Hz display, water resistance, stereo speakers, wireless and reverse wireless charging, etc.), the Galaxy S20 FE gets flagship-grade software as well. It has Samsung DeX support, for one (yes, wireless DeX is there as well), and Samsung has promised it will get three generations of Android and One UI updates.
In fact, from what we can see, Samsung hasn't taken out anything from the software side of things with its made-for-fans Galaxy S20, and it's got me thinking: Wouldn't it be great if the Galaxy S20 FE would also be included in the Android 11-based One UI 3.0 beta program?
I mean, Samsung's already marketing the Galaxy S20 FE as a flagship phone, and it's promising three years of updates. So why not let those who buy the device test the next version of Android and One UI along with those who own the Galaxy S20, S20+, or S20 Ultra and show consumers that the four models will be treating equally as far as software support is concerned.
Of course, we can't be sure that the S20 FE isn't going to be included. The One UI 3.0 beta was first announced back in early August, and even if Samsung had already planned to let Galaxy S20 FE owners take part in the program, it obviously couldn't say anything at the time because the phone wasn't going to be unveiled until late September.
But Samsung hasn't added the S20 FE to the list of supported Galaxy S20 models for the beta program even now, and I hope that won't be the case for long. The Galaxy S20 FE has the same processors and software as its siblings so it shouldn't be hard for Samsung to provide the beta to all four models, and it will probably just come down to whether or not the company wants to do it.
We've reached out to Samsung to find out about the Galaxy S20 FE's One UI 3.0 beta prospects, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a positive response. You might want to do the same if you're planning to buy (or have already bought) the S20 FE and want to help the Korean giant test Android 11 and One UI 3.0 ahead of its public release.
SamsungGalaxy S20 FE
