While all the attention is on Android 4.4 KitKat and who is getting it or not, let’s not forget some core things like that most devices (including 2013 flagships like the LG G2) are yet to get the most recent version of Android before KitKat: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Samsung has for the last one month been rolling out Android 4.3 updates for this year’s flagship, the Galaxy S4 and is expected to continue updating other devices like last year’s flagship devices this month we have just started. We’ve had the Android 4.3 test firmware for the Galaxy Note II leaked and also firmware for carrier specific models in North America of the two 2012 flagships have been out in the world for a while now. What about the international version of the Galaxy S III? The GT-I9300? Good news folks! The guys over at SamMobile managed to get their hands on the first test build of the I9300 and it is build version I9300XXUGMJ9.
The test firmware is said to update the core of the Galaxy S III for a complete overhaul of the UI to bring the looks of the Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy S4 to the best selling smartphone of 2012. Samsung has also overhauled some of the stock apps like the Settings app to include the tabbed interface that first came with Samsung’s skinned Android 4.2.2. However, the apps and widgets are still the same, they have not yet been updated to be like the apps and widgets you see in 2013 Samsung devices that means most of the new apps and widgets (like the weather widget) that Samsung introduced first with the Galaxy S4 are not available. Since this is just a test build and most likely one that is from the early stages of testing and is not the final thing, we could see some of these features added on before the final release which should not be far off. Also, Knox implementation is not present here.
If you’re interested in flashing the new firmware you can get it here. if you don’t have experience flashing firmware on Samsung devices then follow the steps as indicated in the source link below. For those in the know, grab Odin here and you’re ready to go. Feel free to comment below if you get stuck somewhere in the update process.
