Understanding Samsung firmware numbers made easy

Samsung is a top choice for people who love timely software updates. Their Galaxy phones get more Android updates than many other brands. Plus, Samsung is often the first to roll out new security fixes, sometimes even before Google does.

For those who like to update their phones manually, Samsung provides the ODIN tool. You can download official Samsung firmware files from various websites to use with ODIN.

If you’ve ever looked at a Samsung firmware number, it might have seemed like a jumbled mess of letters and numbers. However, each part of these codes has a specific meaning. Here’s a simple way to break down what they all mean using an example from a recent Galaxy S24 Ultra update, firmware number S928BXXS4AYA1:

Breaking It Down Into Four Parts:

S928: This part tells you about the hardware.

• S: Stands for the Galaxy S series. Different letters mean different series like ‘F’ for foldables or ‘A’ for the A series.
• 9: Indicates the price range, with ‘9’ being the highest end.
• 2: Shows the generation of the device. Note, Samsung skipped ‘S11’ and went from S10 to S20.
• 8: Can indicate screen size or network type (4G or 5G).

BXX: This tells you where the phone is sold.

• B: Represents the market region. ‘B’ might mean international 5G models, ‘U’ for the USA, etc.
• XX: Specifics about the device variant in your market. ‘XX’ could be for Europe, ‘SQ’ for USA devices.

S4A: Details what’s in the update.

• S: If it’s just a security update, or ‘U’ for updates with new features.
• 4: The bootloader version, which you can’t downgrade from once updated.
• A: Shows how many significant One UI updates the phone has had.

YA1: When the update was made.

• Y: Represents the year; ‘Y’ is for 2025.
• A: Denotes the month, where ‘A’ is January.
• 1: The build number of the update. This resets with major updates.

Remember, these segments stay consistent across all Samsung Galaxy devices, but the exact characters will change based on the specific model and update. For example, the first two segments (S928BXX) will remain the same for one device, no matter how many updates it gets.

Understanding these codes can help you better manage your phone’s software, especially if you’re into manual updates. Just remember, these are guides to interpret the firmware numbers, and they might slightly vary by model or region.