Following the official release of the Android 6.0 Marshmallow last month, Samsung has included its 2013 flagship smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S4, in the list of devices in the US that is likely to get the latest Google mobile operating system.
According to reports, Samsung is due to receive the updates on its devices beginning on the first quarter up to the second quarter of 2016.
The Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates shall come to identified Samsung devices under the five US carriers including Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, US Cellular, and T-Mobile.
It is expected that Samsung’s latest devices will get the firmware update in the first quarter of next year including the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+, the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, the Galaxy Tab S2, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, and the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
The Korean tech giant’s older devices that have been included in the roster will get the new mobile OS in the second quarter of 2016 and the list includes the Galaxy Note 4, the Galaxy Tab S, the Galaxy S5, and the Galaxy S4.
Most of the older Samsung devices are still running the Android 5.0 Lollipop released last year, but a good number of them has upgraded up to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop already.
No longer coming
The Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates have started rolling out to Google’s Nexus devices as well as on several of LG flagship devices, including the G4, the G3, and the V10.
LG is a Korean tech company so it was kind of surprising that LG beat Samsung to the draw in as far as the release of the new mobile OS is concerned.
The latest report from Samsung is that the company has just changed its mind with regards to the rollout of the Android 6.0 Marshmallow on the Galaxy S4. Accordingly, the Korean tech company will now abide by its policy on updates that only two-year-old devices and fresher are going to receive it, notes the Latinos Post.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is already two years and seven months old which means that it is beyond the policy of the Korean tech giant for OS updates.
A custom ROM update instead
Following the reports about the Android 6.0 Marshmallow no longer coming to the Samsung Galaxy S4, members of the XDA Developer Forum have started working on a custom ROM based on the new Google mobile OS.
Accordingly, Samsung Galaxy S4 with model numbers GT-I9505 can now take on their Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates based on Cyanogen Mod CM13 custom ROM firmware.
However, consumers should bear in mind that not all Galaxy S4 variants can take on the custom ROM firmware updates based on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the better flagship smartphones of the Korean tech giant. In fact, it has raised the bar so high that when the Samsung Galaxy S5 came out last year with very little improvements from the Galaxy S4, it became Samsung’s biggest undoing.
Apart from losing its grip to the reputation as the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturer to Apple last year, Samsung also experienced three successive quarters of falling revenues for the very first time.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is already more than two years old, but it continues to be a desirable smartphone to many of its loyal users.
The 2013 flagship smartphone of the Korean tech giant still looks pretty smart and still is a very capable handset, but its age started to show when it was among the last few devices that got the Android 5.0 Lollipop when it officially rolled out in November last year.
While it is a great-looking smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S4 is actually unrecognizable when compared to both its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S3, and successor, the Samsung Galaxy S5, unless a thorough scrutiny is made.
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