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Back in February, Samsung released an official list stating just which of its many devices would be receiving the Android 4.4.2 Kitkat update. The list of handsets included the Note 3, Note 2, S 4, S 4 Active, S 4 Mini, S 4 Zoom, Mega 6.3, Mega 5.8, the Grand, and finally the Express 2. The following Galaxy tablets were down to be updated as well; the Note 8.0, Note 10.1, Note 10.1 2014 Edition, Tab 3 7.0, Tab 3 8.0, as well as the Tab 3 10.1. Some of the devices would receive an interim update of Android 4.3 JellyBean before moving on to Android 4.4.2, whilst others would be directly updated to Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Samsung’s update schedule has been a topic of debate over the years, and you can see just how they fared in our article that graded the various Android OEM’s for their update efforts.
One device that was conspicuously missing was the Galaxy S3. The S3 was omitted due to ‘having low memory’ and thus deemed unsuitable for the 4.4.2 update. This decision would appear to been reversed, with the international version of the S3, model GT-I9300, featuring on a leaked document (as shown below) outlining the 4.4.2 update schedule, with the Galaxy S4 and Note 3 beginning to receive the KitKat update in February, and the Galaxy S3 (GT-I9300), Note 2 (SM-N7100) and the Galaxy Grand 2 (SM-G7102) due to receive the update in April-May 2014.
Owners of the S3 will no doubt be hoping that the 4.4.2 update will be as smooth as possible, without any of the problems that the 4.3 JellyBean update caused for many users. Some of the Android 4.4.2’s features that Samsung will bring to the Galaxy Devices include such things as album art being displayed on the lock-screen whilst playing music, as well as a camera short-cut on the bottom right of the lock screen to reduce the amount of touches needed to access the camera app. The user can also choose which SMS and launcher apps should become the default apps via the settings. Touchwiz gets a few visual tweaks, one of which includes the use of white icons in the translucent notification bar.
All in all, it appears that Samsung has backtracked on its earlier decision to omit the S3 from its KitKat update schedule. If you are the owner of a Samsung device, does this make you rest a little easier? Knowing that although the venerable S3 is two years of age, it’s still eligible to receive an update to the latest version of Android? Let us know in the comments or at our Google Plus page.
