As expected, and not a moment too soon, the highly anticipated firmware update for the Samsung Galaxy S4 is finally rolling out. As of new, European countries, as well as primary Asian markets (such as India) are receiving prompts for updating to Android Lollipop 5.0 on the Samsung Galaxy S4. The older brother of the S5 was in line to receive the update, after Samsung released Lollipop for the 2014 flagship phone. The Galaxy S4 as such is joining the ranks of high-budget Samsung phones that are getting Google’s newest OS.
So far, the update was confirmed to be up for grabs in most Eastern European countries, as well as Germany and UK. Other European countries will be receiving it as the week progresses. Indian users have also confirmed receiving a prompt to upgrade to Lollipop. The update is quite large, as you would expect. After all, we’re talking about a jump from the older KitKat to the desirable Lollipop. The update is close to 1 GB in size, and for a smooth installation, over 3 GB of storage space is required. Thus, ensure you have enough room on your Galaxy S4 before jumping to update. Additionally, we advise using a WiFi network to download the new firmware, in order to avoid additional carrier costs.
Samsung’s version of Android Lollipop brings the best-looking TouchWiz interface we’ve seen in years, along with all the goodies Lollipop generally comes with. The differences when compared to KitKat are striking, so we recommend a thorough read of the change-log, provided by Samsung. The Galaxy S4 is currently getting the 5.0 version of Android Lollipop, with an update to 5.0.2 expected to drop next month. Samsung might however decide to skip this version entirely and jump to the 5.1 version of the candy-themed Android OS. In case you haven’t received a prompt to update your phone, keep in mind that roll-outs such as this one happen in stages, so it might take a couple of days for your phone to receive it.
As the roll-out is going on in Europe and Asia, US users could be wondering about when the update will make it to their S4s. While Samsung hasn’t specified a specific date, and such update roll-outs are highly dependent on individual carriers, we advise patience. It’s extremely likely that US carriers will start releasing their own versions of Lollipop 5.0 for the Samsung Galaxy S4 by the end of the week.