Samsung One UI 3.0 Beta With Android 11 Adds Galaxy Note 10, More Phones

Samsung has earned the bad rap for being slow on Android updates, be it the major ones or even the monthly security fixes. That, however, may be a thing of the past and its has turned over a new leaf, even going so far as committing to three years of updates starting with this year's flagships. Continuing that new tradition, Samsung has just expanded the reach of its One UI 3.0 beta, which carries with it Android 11, to more phones, including last year's Galaxy Note 10.

Samsung opened its One UI 3.0 beta program with this year's flagships, starting with Galaxy S20 and later included the Galaxy Note 20 series as expected. In the past, it would take months after Google releases a new Android version even before Samsung would start its beta program, usually around December and January. The early start is already a hug behavior change but Samsung is offering even more.

Samsung South Korea has announced that the Android 11 update will be coming soon to its 2020 foldable phones, the Galaxy Z Flip 5G and the Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G, as well as the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10 series from last year. It didn't take long for Samsung to actually start rolling out the beta to the Galaxy Note 10 pair. To be clear, this only covers Korean models and the beta program for these phones haven't started yet in the US.

Compared to One UI 2.0, this upcoming iteration is more incremental than revolutionary. Most of the changes focus on polishing the UI though it does include some new features like double-tapping the screen to sleep. The complete list of phones to be supported by One UI 3.0 isn't final yet but it covers a wide range of Galaxy S, Galaxy A, and even some Galaxy M devices from 2019 to present.

Samsung's expansion of its One UI 3.0 beta program comes at a time when OnePlus is getting backlash over its own update strategy for the new Nord series of mid-range phones. As if going to the opposite extreme, OnePlus has decided it will only update those phones once when it comes to major Android updates, making them feel more like cheap, throwaway phones.