News
Samsung Galaxy S21 One UI 4.1 Update Changelog and New Features
Launched in January 2021 at Galaxy unpacked virtual event, the Samsung Galaxy S21 series comes pre-installed with Android 11 based One UI 3.1. This series devices are eligible for four generations of Android OS upgrades. At the end of last year, Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra received One UI 4.0 update based on Android 12.
Recently, Samsung Galaxy S21 series smartphone began grabbing the latest One UI 4.1 based on Android 12 along with March 2022 security patch. The latest update comes with several new features and improvements to enhance user experience and device performance.
Join SammyFans on Telegram
Based on Android 12, One UI 4.1 is the latest version of Samsung’s custom skin that brings a slew of new features and improvements that aimed to make your Galaxy experience more intuitive, more fun, more secure, and easier than ever.
Some highlighted features of One UI 4.1 includes Smart Widgets, enhanced Color Palette, AR Zone, Galaxy S22 inspired Camera feature, RAM plus, and more. You can check the new Android 12-based One UI 4.1 update features and changelog for your Samsung Galaxy S21 series smartphones below.
Check out Samsung One UI 4.1 changelog below
Camera
- It’s easier than ever to capture great photos and videos.
- Enhanced night portraits
- Take stunning portraits, even in low light. Night shots are now supported in Portrait mode.
- Get the full director’s view
- You can save your director’s view videos with separate front and rear videos so you can edit them later, even after you’re done recording. When you play them back in the Video player, you can switch between different views such as split-screen or picture-in-picture.
Gallery
- Do more with your memories. Gallery brings enhanced features for remastering and organizing your pictures and videos, and sharing is now easier than ever.
- Powerful remastering
-
- Make your photos look better than ever. Sharpen blurry faces, fix distortion on TVs or computer screens, and increase brightness and resolution.
-
- More suggestions
- Get help creating artistic portraits and exciting highlight reels. Gallery will suggest the best effects for your pictures.
- Add portrait effects
- You can now add background blur to any picture with a person in view.
- Portrait relighting
- Adjust the lighting for portraits, even after you’ve taken them, to make sure you always get the perfect shot.
- Convert unnecessary motion photos to still images
- Save storage space by converting motion photos to still images. Gallery will suggest pictures where motion isn’t necessary, such as documents.
- Share albums as links
- No need to invite people to shared albums individually anymore. Just create a link that can be shared with anyone, even if they don’t have a Samsung account or Galaxy device.
- All your invitations together
- Easily accept invitations to shared albums, even if you miss the notifications. Invitations that you haven’t responded to yet will appear at the top of your shared album list.
- Create time lapse videos
- Turn a picture into a vivid 24-hour time-lapse video. A button will appear for pictures of scenery including the sky, bodies of water, mountains, or cities. Your video will appear as if an entire day has passed.
AR Zone
- Express yourself like never before in augmented reality. Create your own emojis, stickers, doodles, and more.
- More decorations for your emoji stickers
- Show your own unique style by adding GIFs from Tenor as decorations for your custom AR emoji stickers.
- Background colors in mask mode
- Keep the focus on your AR emoji while wearing it as a mask. Choose from a variety of colors to use as your background.
Google Duo
- Stay in touch with high-quality video calls. One UI brings you exclusive features.
- Do more during video calls
- You can share another app’s screen during a video call in Google Duo. Watch YouTube together, share photos, explore maps, and more.
- Join video calls in presentation mode
- During a video call on your phone, you can join the same call on your tablet in presentation mode. Your tablet’s screen will be shared with other participants while audio and video continue on your phone.
Samsung Health
- Get deeper insights into your health and enhanced exercise tracking in the latest version of Samsung Health.
- Get insights about your body composition
- Set targets for your weight, body fat percentage, and skeletal muscle mass. You’ll get tips for reaching your goals.
- Build better sleep habits
- Track your sleep and get coaching based on your sleep patterns.
- Enhanced exercise tracking
- On your Galaxy Watch4, you can set interval training targets before you start running or cycling. You’ll get a report on your phone when you’re finished. Your watch can also give information about sweat loss when you run and heart rate recovery for aerobic workouts.
Smart Switch
- Transfer contacts, photos, messages, and settings from an old phone or tablet to your new Galaxy. One UI 4.1 lets you transfer more than ever.
- More transfer options
- You’ll get 3 options when transferring content to your new Galaxy. You can choose to transfer everything, transfer just your accounts, contacts, calls, and messages, or go Custom to choose exactly what you want to transfer.
- SmartThings Find
- Find your phone, tablet, watch, earbuds, and more with SmartThings Find.
- Get notified when you leave something behind
- Make lost belongings a thing of the past. You can choose to get alerts whenever your Galaxy SmartTag is too far away to connect to your phone.
- Find a lost device together
- You can share the location of your devices with others. If a device gets lost, you can get help from another person to scan for it nearby.
Sharing
- One UI 4.1 gives you even more ways to share with others.
- Share your Wi-Fi network
- Use Quick Share to share your current Wi-Fi network with someone else. The person you share with will be able to connect automatically without entering the password.
- Include editing history when you share pictures and videos
- When you share pictures and videos with Quick Share, you can include the complete editing history so the receiver can see what’s changed or revert back to the original.
- Share tips with others
- Find something useful in the Tips app? Tap the Share icon to send it to a friend.
More features and improvements
Color palette
- Customize your phone with unique colors based on your wallpaper. Your custom color palette now appears in more apps, including apps provided by Google.
Smart suggestions
- Your Galaxy just got a lot smarter. When you start adding an event to your calendar, your device will suggest a title and time based on text messages and other activity on your phone. You’ll get similar suggestions in Calendar, Reminder, Keyboard, Messages, and other apps.
Clean up shadows and reflections in Photo Editor
- Shadows and reflections will be removed automatically whenever you use the Object eraser.
Add emojis to your calendar
- In addition to stickers, you can now add emojis to a date on your calendar to express your feelings.
Take quick notes while you browse
- Keep track of your sources with new clipping options for Samsung Notes. You can include content from Samsung Internet or Gallery when you create a note using the quick panel or the Tasks edge panel.
Choose apps for text correction in Samsung Keyboard
- Choose which apps you want to get automatic text corrections in. Turn it on for writing apps to keep your spelling and grammar in check, and turn it off for texting apps where you want to be less formal.
More widely available keyboard options
- Keyboard layouts, input methods, and features for specific languages are now available in more regions, so you can type easily no matter where you are. You can always switch back to your previous layout in Settings.
Customize your sound balance
- In Accessibility settings, you can adjust the left/right sound balance for connected devices, such as speakers or headphones, separately from the sound balance for your phone speakers. This allows you to get the perfect balance out of your headphones without affecting how your ringtone and speakers sound.
New actions for Bixby Routines
- You can now create routines that change your watch face or turn on advanced settings like Protect battery.
Customize your virtual memory
- Choose the size of your phone’s virtual memory with RAM Plus in Device care. Go with more to boost performance or less to save storage space.
Game optimizing service
- CPU/GPU performance during early stages of gameplay will not be limited. (A performance management feature based on device temperature will be maintained.) The “Alternate game performance management mode” in Game Booster will be provided. 3rd party apps to bypass the Game Optimizing Service will be allowed.
Note: Some apps will need to be updated separately after the One UI 4.1 update.
Galaxy S24 and S23 series are seemingly One UI 7 Beta phase I devices in the US. Samsung could release the Beta Program after two weeks. But recently, Samsung published One UI 7 Beta forums on the US community for the Galaxy S24 and S23 series.
It has been discovered that Samsung has published the One UI 7 Beta forum for the Galaxy S24 and S23 series in the US. It’s a big development, hinting at the imminent Beta Program launch for the corresponding models in phase I.
Recently, tipster IceUniverse revealed that the Beta may take two more weeks before release. It seems Samsung has entered the final phase of testing. The company may finish testing Beta 1 of Galaxy S25 by mid-November.
The Galaxy S24 series will be the first to get One UI 7 Beta this year. Meanwhile, we could see a swift expansion, covering select older flagships such as the Galaxy S23 series. Recent foldable models would also enjoy the Beta experience.
Publishing a Beta forum isn’t a quite new development by Samsung. The company publishes respective landing pages on the community every year. The forums will keep Beta participants aware of the latest news and updates.
Recently, we revealed the possibility of One UI 7 Beta debut after November 21. Samsung will hold SDC24 Korea on the 21st, where it could also announce the Beta Program release or drop some good news about the same.
After Beta testing this year, the final version will be introduced early next year. The new software will debut alongside the Galaxy S25 series. We expect the flagship launch in January and the One UI 7 rollout to start in February next year.
Samsung announced its Q3 2024 earnings with consolidated sales of 79.1 trillion won ($57.2 billion) and an operating profit of 9.18 trillion won ($6.6 billion), down by 1.26 trillion won from the previous quarter.
The MX (Mobile) Division saw a 13% improvement from the previous quarter given the launch of new Galaxy phones. The DS (semiconductor) division grew 3% from the previous quarter due to an increase in high-end memory sales.
The Korean tech giant also revealed that sales increased by 7% QoQ, achieving record-high quarterly sales. Gross profit reached 30 trillion won, slightly up from the previous quarter due to the expansion of flagship sales in MX.
Samsung continued its active R&D investments, recording an all-time high of 8.87 trillion won in quarterly R&D expenses. DS Division’s one-time expenses were larger than the gap between Samsung’s operating profit and market consensus.
Key Details:
- Memory Business: Profits decreased due to a reduction in inventory evaluation recovery, one-time expenses like incentive provisioning, and currency impacts from a weaker dollar.
- System LSI: Sales increased through maximizing revenue and minimizing inventory, although performance declined due to increased one-time expenses.
- DX Division posted sales of 44.99 trillion won and an operating profit of 3.37 trillion won.
- VD posted increased sales and profit from both the previous quarter and the same period last year.
- Home appliances improved performance year-over-year.
Galaxy S25 Series
Apart from earnings results, Samsung confirmed the Galaxy S25 series will launch in the first half of next year. The company vowed to introduce an enhanced Galaxy AI experience for consumers to elevate their everyday tasks.
Official: Samsung Galaxy S25 to redefine everyday AI with bold new features
For the first time, Samsung officially discussed the Galaxy S25 series. Today, the company announced its earnings results for the third quarter. Samsung also revealed that the Galaxy S25 series will enhance Galaxy AI with bold new features.
Samsung says the Galaxy S25 series will be released in the first half of next year with an enhanced Galaxy AI experience. The launch timeframe should be January 2025, but we would get genuine information by the end of the year.
Galaxy AI has proven a big hit this year, and Samsung is planning further enhancements to the Galaxy S25 series. We expect new features with deeper integration across the operating system in the Galaxy AI next year.
Samsung aims to enhance the Galaxy AI experience to drive innovation in everyday life and expand sales by strengthening marketing and experience programs. The next upgrade to Galaxy AI will create a wide gap with its Apple counterpart.
Given Galaxy AI advancement, the MX Division would pursue sales growth and profitability improvement centered on flagships. This includes the latest S25 series and foldable phones as well as Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Book, and Galaxy Buds/Watch.
Samsung’s mobile business will continue to maintain solid sales of its AI smartphones. Expect various sales promotions during the holiday season, which would push annual flagship sales growth to double digits.
MX Earnings in Q3
The MX and Networks businesses posted KRW 30.52 trillion in consolidated revenue and KRW 2.82 trillion in operating profit in 3Q24.
Overall market demand for smartphones grew modestly as the residual effects of global inflation slowed the recovery in consumer spending.