Android 4.3 rolling out to international Galaxy S4 starting in Germany

If you’ve been waiting for the Android 4.3 update to hit your Samsung Galaxy S4 in order to rush out and grab a Galaxy Gear, then you may actually be able to do that quite soon, with reports coming in that Samsung has begun rolling out the Android 4.3 update to owners of the Snapdragon based Galaxy S4(GT-I9505) in Germany.

The update brings about not only the Galaxy Gear compatability but KNOX capabilities as well as TRIM support that saw speed improvements on the aging original Nexus 7 when it updated. There are other improvements included :

• OpenGL 3.0 Support
• GALAXY GEAR Support
• TRIM Support (Makes the device much faster)
• ANT+ Support
• Samsung KNOX Implementation (KNOX bootloader and dedicated application)
• Samsung Wallet comes pre-loaded
• Improved RAM management
• Improved Display colour reproduction (Display looks much sharper than before)
• Improved TouchWiz Launcher (Much less launcher redraws and less lag)
• New Samsung Keyboard
• New Samsung Browser (Full screen by default, new tab interface and more)
• New Reading Mode (Optimises display for reading, used by only a few specific applications)
• New Camera firmware
• Minor UI tweaks (Contacts app, Flashlight Widget, dialog boxes etc)

Locally, we should see the update hitting unlocked international versions soon, but carrier branded versions will have to wait for the update to be approved by the carriers. At this stage Vodafone has not listed the update on their Software Update blogs as yet, nor has Telstra as of their last software update post. But, Optus has actually listed the update on their updates page advising customers that the Android 4.3 update is due – Early December.

Hopefully we should see the firmware hit the web shortly so that adventurous types can flash the firmware, but until then it shouldn’t be too much longer.

Will you buy a Galaxy Gear when your Galaxy S4 gets the update?