After reports from very credible Samsung-centric sites started streaming in that the Galaxy S III, one of Samsung’s two flagship devices in 2012, may never get the KitKat update, many of us were heartbroken (we still are!). However, there is something that should lighten our faces a bit: the Galaxy Note II international version (GT-N7100) is finally getting the long-awaited Android 4.4 KitKat update.
Rolling out in France at the moment, the update brings to users a slew of KitKat features under the hood and hidden to the ordinary user thanks to Samsung’s custom skin TouchWiz. However, users get some TouchWiz goodies like that camera shortcut on the lockscreen, Knox (well if you regard that as a goody), Samsung Wallet and full-screen album art (one of the most awesome feature on the Note 3). Other Android features like the white icons on the status bar and wireless printing integration also make it to the update.
The official builds should be hitting the web in the next few hours so if you’re good with Samsung manual firmware update process, you should be on the lookout for a ROM to play with. Funny enough, we did not have a leaked build to prepare us for this, Samsung just surprised us.
This should be the Note II’s last Android update since it will be hitting the two year mark in August and traditionally even Google supports its Nexus devices for just a period of 18 months. That is the dilemma the Galaxy S III is facing since it has already exhausted its 18 month support period and will be hitting the 2 year mark next month.
However, the Galaxy S III has had 3 major updates while the 4.4 update is the Note II’s second major software upgrade. The S III has been upgraded from Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich to Android 4.1.x Jelly Bean to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean whereas the Note II went from the 4.1.2 it launched with to 4.3 Jelly Bean after a year and is now getting 4.4.
Via: Sammobile