Android 10 Beta For Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 9 Is Almost Here
Once the bane of Android updates, Samsung has changed its ways and has strived to deliver updates, both major ones and monthly patches, more regularly than before. It is by no means perfect, mind, and there have been delays or broken updates here and there. To its credit, however, Samsung is at least publicly trying to keep up with its commitment years ago. It has just started testing Android 10 for its latest Galaxy Note 10 flagship but, according to some sources, the Galaxy S10 and last year's Galaxy Note 9 might be joining this week.
Samsung has traditionally been regarded as the slowest to update its phones to the latest Android versions and sometimes even critical security fixes took months to arrive. That has largely been attributed to Samsung's heavy customizations in TouchWiz, a.k.a. Samsung Experience, a.k.a. One UI. It still makes a lot of changes to its Android experience but the company has indeed tried to change its ways, even if there have been hiccups along the way.
Given that history, it's no surprise that Galaxy phone owners of even the latest flagship models get excited whenever there's word on when their phone will get the next Android version. All About Samsung reports that testing for Android 10 on the Galaxy S10 could even begin as early as tomorrow, October 10, in Germany. Given it was Samsung's early 2019 racehorse, that may not be too surprising.
Things aren't so clear yet for the Galaxy Note 9, which was launched in the second half of 2018. It's still coming "soon" but GalaxyClub has found clues that the company has started testing a firmware for the phone with version number N960FXXU3DSJ3, the "D" taken to be proof of Android 10.
It's definitely good news that Samsung is starting to get the ball rolling this early but smartphone owners should temper their excitement. This is just the start of the beta test, which could take a while before the final version is rolled out. Given Samsung's past record of rolling out major Android updates, the company should exercise more care and do more testing before putting it out for the general public.