Samsung have been in the news an awful lot lately and it hasn’t always been good. The latest was with S5 owners feeling remorse over subsidizing and buying outright the current S5 that is about to be overtaken by a new Quad HD Prime model instead only a matter of months later. Yes, Samsung have made some questionable decisions, but those with older devices are not complaining anymore because it looks as though even the older S3 is starting to receive the Android 4.4.2 KitKat OTA. It is of course the very latest software that Android has to offer and even though we hear whispers of the Primed S5 coming with 4.4.3 and the Nexus devices also being updated, for now there is nothing newer than this.
Reports are that Sprint S3 owners are already getting the update while the rest are currently waiting. We anticipate these beginning within the next 24 hours and it won’t be a big break in between the rests. A matter of days and not weeks is the usual amount of time between the next carriers down the line releasing theirs. More proof of what I just said can be found from the US cellular website where they have the S3 already listed as a 4.4.2 running device. Typically speaking we would expect them to be further down the chain than second place when receiving this and more towards the end of it.
Some of you may already know that Samsung released two different S3 editions. The first was released on March and called the i9300 and the second called the i9305 didn’t come out until September. It is a bit reminiscent of what we are hearing happening now with the Prime S5 but to a lesser extent. Anyhow, the i9305 has LTE 4G or otherwise known as long-term evolution, 2GB RAM and different color options compared to the older i9300. To make matters worse for the people who went out and bought the i9300, it doesn’t look like Sammy are planning on releasing this update for those devices. Instead, it will only go out to the i9305. The news is only rumor, and if we were to see it come out in the future, it would be this way like it is now because newer devices always get updated before the older ones. With that being said, it is hard to say this rumor is true until another month or so down the track. If it is coming to the older i9300 then it wont be too far away from now.
If you do have the correct model number of GT-i9305 and you also correspond with any of these other numbers then this update will become your way: SCH-S968C, SPH-L710, SCH-S960L, SCH-R530, SGH-N035, SGH-I747, SHV-E210S, SHV-E210K, SHV-E210L, SGH-T999/L, SGH-N064, SCH-J021, SCH-I535, SCH-S968C and the SCH-I939. That covers them all as far as e know but if you come across any others then please leave a comment and we will fill it in. Also, if you are with another phone carrier other than Sprint, please comment also and tell the readers which carriers are getting a new software.
If I remember back to the start of the year all reports were that the Note 2 and S3 would not be getting this software. Therefore, I would not expect Sammy to keep updating these older handsets further. There is a small chance it gets Android 4.4.3, but I wouldn’t bet much further than that. Make sure you enjoy this one ladies and gentleman.
I mentioned what features are in this firmware a lot over the past few months all over the site. To give you a run down there is a camera app icon in the bottom right corner of the lock-screen. It is accessible by swiping up and not tapping the icon. It can be taken off the lock-screen by visiting the widgets. The status bar is all white and there is no greener or orange. Emoji is updated, the keyboard in landscape mode is updated, the notification tray is a new font. Speed is way faster and performance is light years ahead of the older Jelly Bean. There is a new immersive mode that lets you read, view video without the status bar or anything else in the way so you get immersed in nothing but rich content. Above all, some of my favorite features are the new Easter Eggs that Google included. To check them out go to the build number after updating and tap on it ten times. The letter ‘K’ will show up. Tap it and it will spin. Keep tapping and it will change the screen into the KitKat Android logo that looks a lot like our favorite chocolate bar treat. The screen can be long-pressed again and it will bring up a Tetris-style game that shows all of the Android software versions pieced together in a puzzle. Each icon can be clicked and moved around.