While Nexus devices were busy receiving their update to Android 4.4.2 earlier this week, Samsung is slowly catching up with the pace of Android progress and rolling out Android 4.3 Jelly Bean to its range of Galaxy S4 handsets.
Ausdroid has received advice that Optus-branded Galaxy S4’s are receiving the Android 4.3 update in the form of a 723 MB update, and another tip suggests that unbranded outright Galaxy S4’s are receiving the update as well.
Update: As of 16 December, we’ve received advice that hte update is rolling out to Vodafone-branded S4’s as well.
The update includes:
- Android 4.3 OS upgrade
- Added features – KNOX for consumers
- Compatibility with Galaxy Gear
- Improved graphics and Bluetooth performance
- Improved user interface and stability
- User interface changes
- (Unspecified) Security enhancements
Rumours abound when it comes to Samsung hardware, and this one’s a whopper, but there’s much speculation that the Galaxy S4 (as well as the older Galaxy S III) will receive a further update to Android 4.4 KitKat as soon as January 2014. We’ll have to wait and see on that one.
Have you received the 4.3 update for your Galaxy S4? Let us know what’s new and cool in the new release.
so the bottom line is to wait another 6 months for the bugs to be ironed out or 2-3 months after the delpoyment ota is released after 6 jan from telstra. so is the australian s4 from telstra considered as an international model? bloody hell, might aswell buy the S5 or Note4 that would come with andriod 4.9 by then
Accidentally updated to 4.3. My god battery life just sucks atm. There is noticeable delays in connecting to wifi and lte takes awhile to connect and sometimes fails so I leave it on 3g only. I dont think samsung bother reading user complaints from forums like these and I suppose they dont bother also fron their own forums. What I have noticed though is that once they release a flagship device the support is almost made redundant there after. Theres even more horror stories from those who updated to 4.4 on their s4 months ago and are still waiting for… Read more »
I hate hate the update on the S4, my phone is forever freezing every 30-45 seconds. My battery doesn’t last any more, I have update on my galaxy tab and works perfectly.
I installed the recent OTA upgrade to 4.3 on my Optus Samsung S3. It has dramatically reduced the battery life. I had it on 98% charge before going to bed last night, expecting to be woken by my alarm 8.5 hours later. It drained the whole battery during this time. NOT HAPPY JAN!
Telstra S4 – 2 weeks on 4.3 and so far – not good. Battery is all over the place – sudden drain with no reference to what just ate 20% of my battery in 10 minutes. And the phone is running hotter now – can feel it on my leg while in the pocket (where I always have it) – might be linked to the battery drain…. It is now randomly rebooting, 5 times in 2 weeks – compared to 0 previously. No warning, no lights and takes a good 1-2minutes before it magically boots back up after pushing the… Read more »
thank-you for the feedback. will be definitely holding back on this update. imho i thiink the s4 is Samsung white elephant. i dont think it took off to well as expected. the 4.3 on the htc one works like a charm. i dont even think cynmods work well on the s4 either. i say this will be my first and last Samsung mobile purchase. will either go back to Motorola (Motorola atrix was such an awesome phone especially the phone signal pick up was far more superior then the s4 – it was blue tick approved) but the camera sucked… Read more »
I have a S4 with a Telstra ROM. I got the update this week. Sadly it’s introduced a bug – I get a blank screen when there is an incoming call. Don’t know how to fix it..
Hi, just wondering does it still have the problem where the dock icons can’t be changed, and the camera shutter can’t be silenced? I’m using an international rom right now and would really like to switch back to the default vodafone rom.
Thanks
got it a few days ago and it started causing problems. battery life is shortened, wifi has become unstable and I keep getting message tones without getting any messages
Got my OTA 4.3 update via Optus on 21st Dec. Not wild about it but certainly an improvement to what it was.
Hi All,
Spotted Optus branded 4.3 on samfirmware.coom today, version 4.3 branded I9505XXUEMK9_I9505OPSEMJ5_OPS
Installed, running perfectly, very smooth and better I feel than the international version.
1.6GB download for full install file, and install via ODIN.
Cheers, Sean
so hows is the S4 performing with this 4.3 update? battery life, camera picture quality, wifi, bluetooth, LTE, 3g,2g? screen rotation, music player? seems like no ones commented after their updates on their australian s4? (telstra)
I have noticed the battery has drained dramatically
Just recvd OTA update 4.3 for my GT-i9505 unbranded AU stock purchased from JB HiFi downloading update now
I’ve got an Optus Samsung S4… but I haven’t gotten the 4.3 update yet… Anyone know when I’ll probably get it?
Following. My partner was able to update last night. Im still for mine. We’re both s4 users with optus.
Just had the latest update on my kogan unbranded i9505. Within 10min noticed problems with Wifi and data. Data keeps turning off and on. And wifi keeps showing ‘ wifi connection unstable’. Hope they fix this soon!
Oh and battery life is dismal.
My Kogan unbranded GS4 received the update about 3 weeks ago. The most noticeable change is less battery life 4 hours on screen vs 2.5 hours now. Instability in chrome browser i.e. flickering in tab view. And occasionally Android OS service complete battery drain 80%+ odd battery use. Great!!!
The optus website has changed it said the update would be available in december, but now it says Jan yet people are getting it? Lol
Got it running on my i9505, and rooted successfully. Just to install a custom recovery and I’m all set 🙂
On the Telstra site :
Samsung Galaxy S4
Android Jellybean+ 4.3
First round testing
16/12/2013 (expected test completed date)
6/01/2014 (expected deployment date)
– Deployment date may change depending on manufacturer schedules
So anyone unwise enough to let Telstra have control of the update of their phone is going to be waiting another month at least; for the deployment of an obsolete version of the OS from six months ago….
My SG4 just updated to 4.3 today, all good with the upgrade.
Are all the s4s the same now as in they do not have specific T variants any more for the Oz market?
Great, now get them started on the note 2…
Finally! XSA (Unbranded) S4 ready to download when I get home from work 🙂
I flashed that just last night so far looks good.
Downloading now on my Virgin Mobile Galaxy S 4
Downloading update now…. Unbranded S4 GT-I9505