The Samsung Galaxy S4 has been on the market for a while now, and the device already got two major successors which pushed the line forward in quite the serious ways. Samsung are one of the companies with the strongest presence on the Android market, and they’ve been putting a lot of effort into improving their offers even more and ensuring that there is always a lot of attention on their smartphones. There are currently various rumors about a potential new installment in their line-up as well, but we don’t have any concrete information.
In the meantime, the S4 is still a pretty active device on the market and there are lots of people using it all over the world. The fact that official Android updates for older phones are dying down certainly hasn’t stopped people from enjoying the device and what it has to offer, and for what it’s worth, the Galaxy S4 is still a pretty capable member of the Android family.
But those who want to get the most that the phone has to offer need to use special measures, namely a custom ROM designed specifically for the phone’s hardware, which also brings it up to the latest version of the operating system. Sometimes, a certain device might not be eligible to be upgraded to the most recent Android release through the official channels, but that’s where custom ROMs come in. They are special editions of the operating system created by community members with the goal of allowing as many people as possible to have access to more recent versions of Android.
There are some caveats about the process, sure – for example, it has to be done using specialized tools and there is a certain risk of “bricking” the device, that is, making it unusable, but that’s a pretty low possibility and as long as the instructions are followed closely, there’s not much that can go wrong.
On the other hand, if something does go wrong, the user should keep in mind that flashing a custom ROM to an Android device almost always voids its warranty, so they should be prepared to deal with the consequences in that case. This means that there will be no free repairs at a service shop and the user would have to cover any repair procedures out of their own pocket, but thankfully reflashing a bricked Android phone is not that expensive in most cases. Although of course it depends on the shop for the most part.
It’s also very important to remember that all data must be backed up before the process starts, as flashing a custom ROM formats the phone’s memory and erases everything from it. But most people using a smartphone should be keeping regular backups of their data anyway, so this shouldn’t be a problem for a large portion of Galaxy S4 owners, especially tech-savvy ones who are more inclined to look into flashing a custom ROM to their devices.
Users have had very positive responses to the new CyanogenMod 13 ROM that was made available for the Galaxy S4 LTE, claiming that it really does improve the usability of the device, and that it’s a good step up from the base experience. Of course, experiences may vary across the board, but there have been lots of positive opinions on the Internet so far, while there are few reports of any issues with the new ROM so it’s probably safe to assume that it’s acceptable.