The Samsung Galaxy S4 isn’t exactly the newest device in the company’s Galaxy line, but it’s still getting active support and love from the community around it, as people have been working hard to keep the device up to date with the current trends. One of the good things about Android is that the operating system is so open, and it allows its users to easily tweak its settings and mess around with their devices in order to come up with a configuration that suits their own device best.
This also includes the loading of customized firmware, offered in the form of custom ROMs which are produced by the community and distributed online. There are different types of ROMs that all focus on improving various aspects of the phone, and CyanogenMod is probably among the most popular names in this field.
The developers of the ROM have just come out with a new version targeting the Samsung Galaxy S4 which allows owners of the device to upgrade to Android 6.0 Marshmallow through an unofficial channel, and enjoy all benefits that the new version of the operating system brings to the table. And those benefits are quite a few, to the extent where most owners of the device are advised to install the new operating system, even if they haven’t done a flashing procedure until now.
The process is actually not that complicated at all and even though it has some intricate details that have to be observed, it’s mostly foolproof and can’t really go wrong nowadays as long as the user follows the instructions. There are various benefits to it as well, such as the improved performance that it brings for many devices on the market.
That’s because those custom ROMs are often designed around a specific device and they offer improvements aimed at utilizing the full potential of its hardware, unlike the general Android release branch which is trying to target as many devices as possible at the same time, and as a result it makes some compromises with the performance on some of them.
It’s important to note that not all variants of the Galaxy S4 support the new custom ROM, and the international LTE model is the only one that’s officially supported by the developers. There have been reports from users claiming to have gotten the update to work on other devices, but these are somewhat sketchy and not very easy to confirm, plus the risk is far too great to be worth it.
If the flashing goes wrong – such as when used on the incorrect device type – then the phone will end up bricked and has to be repaired by a professional. And due to the specifics of rooting Android phones, it will no longer be eligible for a free repair at the shop as its warranty will be voided. That’s an important note to make for owners of the Samsung Galaxy S4 who only recently got their devices and still have some warranty left on them.
Once the update is installed, users should see a noticeable increase in performance in the operating system, and of course they will also get access to all the new features introduced in Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The operating system has been taking a more and more solid shape for quite a while now, and Google are obviously moving in a very specific direction with it and they have a solid plan for how they want Android to end up.