Samsung's April update lands on the Galaxy S20 FE in the US

Samsung has started updating the US version of the Galaxy S20 FE to the April security patch. The first-gen Fan Edition (FE) phone is currently receiving the update on carrier-locked units. Factory-unlocked variants should join the party soon. The latest security update has been already pushed to the phone in several international markets.

April update is live for the US version of the Galaxy S20 FE

Launched in late 2020, the Galaxy S20 FE marked the beginning of a new smartphone lineup for Samsung. The FE lineup offers flagship-grade features in a more affordable package. The device has received regular updates since its launch. It arrived with Android 10 and received feature updates up to Android 13. That’s the maximum Samsung promised, so it will no longer get feature updates—no Android 14 or One UI 6.1.

The Galaxy S20 FE is still getting monthly security patches, though. It should pick up new SMR (Security Maintenance Release) at least until September this year. After that, Samsung may end software update support for the phone or drop it to quarterly updates and push a few more security patches. There are still several months to go before we know whether the FE phone will get updates for a fifth year.

In the meantime, it is starting to pick up the latest SMR (Security Maintenance Release) in the US. The carrier-locked variants of the Galaxy S20 FE are getting the April update with the firmware build number G781USQSFHXD1. As expected, the update doesn’t bring any new features or improvements. It is all about this month’s security fixes. “The security of your device has been improved,” the official changelog states.

The April 2024 SMR for Galaxy devices patches more than 40 vulnerabilities. As usual, these include several Android OS patches from Google. The Android maker fixed one critical Android bug this month, along with dozens more high-severity vulnerabilities. Samsung also patched a handful of Galaxy-specific security flaws. These issues don’t exist on Android devices from other brands.

Galaxy S20 flagships may not get the new SMR

Samsung’s April 2024 security update may not reach the Galaxy S20 flagships. Those devices arrived in early 2020 and turned four earlier this year. The company has dropped them to quarterly updates. They picked up the March release, so the next security patch may arrive in June. We will let you know when a new update rolls out to the Galaxy S20 series. You can always check for updates from the Settings app.