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Another Samsung phone has received the December security update in the US. The company is pushing the latest SMR (Security Maintenance Release) to the Galaxy S20 FE. International versions of the phone picked up the update recently.
Galaxy S20 FE receives Samsung’s December update in the US
Samsung is updating both carrier-locked and unlocked variants of the Galaxy S20 FE to the December SMR in the US. The new firmware build numbers for the phone are G781USQSEHWK2 and G781U1UESEGWK1, respectively. In Europe, the same update comes with the build number G781BXXS9HWK8.
Despite carrying different build numbers, the latest update for the Galaxy S20 FE bears the same changelog globally. “The security of your device has been improved,” the only entry in Samsung’s official changelog states. The December SMR for Galaxy devices contains patches for more than 60 security issues.
According to Samsung, about 50 of those are Android OS flaws patched by Google. These include seven critical vulnerabilities. The remaining patches are for issues on various Samsung system apps, services, and components. These vulnerabilities don’t affect Android products from other brands.
If you are using the Galaxy S20 FE and have yet to receive the December SMR, you should soon. Watch out for a notification in the coming days. Once it arrives, you can tap on it to proceed with downloading the update. You can also try manually triggering the update from the Settings app. Go to the Software update menu and tap on Download and install.
The aging FE phone won’t get Android 14
While this update protects your Galaxy S20 FE from dozens of security flaws, you aren’t getting any new features here. Samsung launched the device in September 2020 with Android 10 onboard. Over the past three years, it updated the device to Android 11, Android 12, and Android 13. Unfortunately, as far as major Android OS updates are concerned, that is all it will ever get. The Galaxy S20 FE isn’t eligible for Android 14 or One UI 6.0.
It won’t get any other major feature update either. The phone will receive security patches at least until late 2024. If you are looking to upgrade to a newer Samsung phone, the company recently launched the Galaxy S23 FE. It also has the Galaxy S24 flagship lineup coming in January 2024. If you want to explore other brands, you can check out these best Android smartphones for 2023. Note that some brands offer fewer major Android OS upgrades than others.