It’s usually a good idea to keep devices up to date with the latest version of their official software, but when it comes to a phone that’s been out on the market for a while, this is not always the case. The Samsung Galaxy S2 recently got access to Android Lollipop 5.1 and the device can now use the operating system’s new version, but there are some caveats that users should be aware of.
First of all, the Lollipop package for the Samsung Galaxy S2 is based on OmniROM, so users will have to download and deploy it first. Since this is not an official flashing procedure, a backup is recommended, and users should be prepared for a complete device wipe.
Also, the phone has to be rooted and fully unlocked, and it should also have a recovery tool installed in order to make it eligible for the installation of the update. Users should also keep in mind that this is a custom ROM which removes certain features in order to make the OS fully compatible with older devices, but it should still offer a good, smooth Android 5 experience despite the older hardware of the phone.
Users have been reporting that the custom ROM runs more or less smoothly, although some performance drops are noticeable here and there – which can be expected, considering that not even the Galaxy S3 is going to support Android 5 officially. According to Samsung, the S3 will be limited to Android 4.4 KitKat. It’s not known if that’s because they simply don’t want to prepare special update packages for the device, or they’re concerned about its hardware capabilities, but that’s the situation right now.
The Samsung Galaxy S2 is not exactly a weak phone by any means, but its 1.2 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM are starting to fall behind the times nowadays, with more and more phones getting 2 GB of RAM and more powerful processors. Its screen resolution might also be a bit low for the standards of some people, but 480×800 phones are still quite popular in some parts of the market so it should do fine for some time.
It’s not known if the custom ROM used for this update will continue to receive support in the future, but users should not expect a lot of activity on the S2 front from now on. The device is old enough that most developers are starting to ignore it completely when optimizing their tools and applications, and Samsung themselves have moved on to other flagship phones. Android 5.1 can breathe some fresh life into it, but in the end, it probably won’t be a major extension.