Users of Samsung’s 2013 flagship, the Galaxy S4, have been getting some KitKat dreams over the last couple of weeks thanks to leaked firmwares. However, one of group of these users has been left in the cold with not even a suitable leaked build of Android 4.4. Well, for now, the wait is finally over as Samsung is currently seeding the update in multiple regions starting with Russia and several GT-I9500 users are reporting getting a notification to update to the latest version of Android. Looks like the upcoming Galaxy S5 will have to capitalize on new extra features and high powered hardware if it is to outsmart its already ageing predecessor when it comes out next week.
As we all know, Samsung takes quite some time to release updates to all regions so your best bet at the moment if you’re not one of the lucky few getting OTA update ntifications or you tampered with your Galaxy S4 by way of rooting then Odin, as usual, is your best friend.
The international Exynos Galaxy S4’s update comes ahead of the LTE/Snapdragon variant’s update but the latter has had leaked firmware come its way in recent days so it is likely a matter of a few more hours and that update too will land. That was the case with the Android 4.3 update for this device. The Snapdragon 600 variant got it and several hours later the Exynos 5410 powered S4 had it. Of course Samsung is still sticking with its preferred market of Russia for the initial rollout while other regions follow closely. It is Russia that first got the 4.4 update for the Exynos 5420 powered Galaxy Note 3 and it has the same honour.
There are several changes that the KitKat update brings to the device including the all-white transparent status bar and camera shortcut on the lockscreen as can be seen on Galaxy Note 3 devices with the 4.4.2 update. I just hope the update won’t bring issues as it did to Galaxy S III users last year. It is important to note that Google did change the way applications communicate with external storage media so there could be some issues with writing to sd cards. That is unlikely since Samsung has been seeding an update to fix that on Galaxy Note 3 devices running KitKat and with the Russian build having yesterday’s date (February 19th), it is likely it is fixed here as well.
The Galaxy S4’s KitKat update comes a month late since as per a leaked document, the device was to get Android 4.4 back in January alongside the Galaxy Note 3. I guess Samsung just had to let the Note 3 users have the honour of basking in the glory of having the latest and the greatest. Let’s hope Samsung will stick with those leaked timelines and update the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II to possibly their last official software update next month even though rumours are already swirling that that won’t happen. Let’s wait and see.
You can refer to previous articles on Galaxy device updates on how to go about flashing Android 4.4 KitKat on your I9500 and hit the source link below for where you can start downloading your bundle of happiness from.
I’ll be testing the firmware as soon as I have a minute to spare and will report back on any peculiar issues users may experience.
Source: Sammobile
