Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Jelly Bean update for Galaxy Note in India goes live


Jelly Bean update for the first Galaxy Note is now available to download via Samsung KIES, did not check the exact download size of the firmware, the entire download process took close to an hour and no back up was required during this upgrade process. All call logs, SMS and other essential data was intact after the upgrade completed.


Observed initial lag while using the phone right after the firmware was installed, normalised in some time. Galaxy Note gets Jelly Bean version 4.1.2 with Nature UX and it does feel smooth to operate, Icons look slightly up sized and crisp. Camera seems to have improved on center focus capture mode which gives a tilt shift effect while capturing pictures. Animated collapse view visible while accessing apps grouped into folder, S Memo is now merged into S Note app.

Notable features that make an appearance are:
  • Google Now
  • Multi view and side panel 
  • Page buddy
  • Customizing notification panel 
  • Smart rotation 
  • Samsung cloud sync service
  • Features like Direct Call, Smart Stay and Pop-up Play
  • Updated Music Player with Sound Alive

This upgrade has limited features from the premium suite available on GS3 and Note II. You do not get features like video and other content preview with S-Pen hovering over, pop up note for S-Pen, Burst mode for camera etc.

Interesting part is that Group Play and AllShare play also arrive on Galaxy Note which were announced during Galaxy S4 launch, Galaxy Grand is also due to get both of these soon in India. More screenshots from the upgrade below, share your feedback on any performance improvements, battery life as you upgrade your Galaxy Note via KIES as OTA upgrade currently does not seem to be available.

By the way, Galaxy Note along with some older crop of Galaxy series phones like S2 are due to get their last upgrade up to Jelly Bean version 4.2.2, so hopes for a Key Lime Pie update (Android 5.0) look very bleak as per a recent news published on sam mobile website, Nevertheless finally Jellybean made it to the original note after almost like 9 months Google released this OS code for Android manufacturers.











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