Differences between same model Galaxy s8 phones

[oldun]

My wife and I both have Samsung Galaxy S8 phones. Both are SM-G950F models, both are connected to Three Mobile UK network, both are describe as in the official state, both are set to automatically receive updates and both are said to be fully up to date.

Why is one phone on Android 9 while the other is on Android 8?

How can I force the Android 8 phone onto Android 9?

 

[Unforgiven]

When did the one phone get 9?

Not all phones are updated at the same time. They are usually updated in waves, and with as many S8's that exist in the world I imagine it takes a while to work through all of those waves. If by luck of the draw (or whatever algorithm they use to select devices to be updated which probably accounts for balanced asset utilization but I'm just speculating here ) one device is in an early wave and one is in a later wave you could see something like this.

 

[oldun]

Many thanks. It happened whilst I was on holiday last month. I noticed mainly because the app icons are slightly different in shape and have much stronger colours. For example the camera icon has a very bright red background.

 

[Unforgiven]

A month seems a long time, but I don't have the S8. Hopefully some other S8 owners can check in with some thoughts.

 

[tube517]

First, do you like the Pie/One UI update?

There were major changes and many people didn't like the update. I have the Note 8 and my wife has the S8+ and it has been fine for us.

Second, did you try and manually check for the update?

Goto Settings>Software update (This may be different on Oreo as mine is on Pie and I forgot the way to get there when I had Oreo).

 

[svim]

You might want to try using Samsung's Smart Switch utility to manually prompt a version upgrade, just keep in mind that while it's something in the utility's feature list it may or may not update/upgrade anything (YMMV).
https://www.howtogeek.com/347831/how-to-use-samsung-smart-switch-to-update-your-galaxy-phone/
In your situation since you know your carrier has released an OTA upgrade it's more a matter of just being patient. There's no definitive guideline that the manufacturers and carriers will reveal to the public on which phones get upgraded and when.