The Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.4 KitKat won’t arrive for UK users, according to an official statement.
Owners of the 3G version of the Samsung Galaxy S3, the GT-I9300, will no doubt be disappointed by the news, but in its statement to Samsung enthusiast site SamMobile, the company said that the international version of the phone, which only has 1GB of RAM, wouldn’t be capable of accepting the KitKat upgrade.
Some hope had been given to hardcore S3 fans because Sprint in the US has begun rolling out Android 4.4 KitKat to the phone on its network.
This was possible, according to Samsung, because the LTE 4G version, the GT-I9305, has 2GB of RAM available, which is sufficient for KitKat, and the firm’s TouchWiz software, which has certain hardware requirements of its own.
UK users of 4G Galaxy S3, which was available on EE when 4G first launched here should still get that update.
Interestingly, the Google spec for KitKat only requires that phones have 512MB of RAM. Indeed, Samsung even sells phones running Android 4.4 that have 1GB or less memory.
This sort of suggests that Samsung doesn’t really want to keep releasing software updates for the S3. That makes sense, as it would much rather people bought new phones, like the Samsung Galaxy S5.
To some extent, it’s hardly surprising as the phone was released in May 2012 and has now left the “two year” support guideline that Google likes to maintain for Android phones. The S3 will have access to Android 4.3 though, which is still a pretty decent point for the phone to end up – it was launched with Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) initially.
If you’re desperate to get KitKat on your S3, then the developer community over at XDA has plenty of builds that offer 4.4. You’ll risk destroying your phone though, and you’ll need to perform some fairly tricky technically stuff to get it to work. Still, it shows there is “life in the old dog yet”.
Read more: Android 4.4 KitKat tips, tricks and secrets
Via: SamMobile
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.