14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian carrier Bell has just announced that the customers who purchased the Samsung Galaxy S4 through its official retail channels will now be able to upgrade their smartphones to Android 4.4.2 KitKat.
According to Bell, the upgrade is now available OTA (over the air), as well as through Samsung Kies desktop software. However, we suspect that this would be a staged rollout, so Galaxy S4 owners should expect some delays in the update's delivery.
Samsung Galaxy S4 owners should look for firmware I337MVLUFNC1 when searching for the KitKat update. In order to do that, simply go to Settings / More / About device / Software update / Update.
Make sure your phone's battery is at least 50% charged and that your Wi-Fi network connection is stable. Even though Bell does not explicitly say that you should back up your data on the smartphone, we recommend doing it anyway to avoid losing your sensitive data stored on the device.
If you have access to a PC, it should be much easier to just connect you Galaxy S4 via microUSB cable and upgrade through Kies. Obviously, you should have the latest version of Samsung Kies installed on your PC, otherwise the application will prompt you to update to a newer iteration when you open it.
Samsung Galaxy S4 owners: Android Kit Kat 4.4 is now available for your device. Here's how to make the update: http://t.co/v0jpMMBXRL #GS4
— Bell Mobility (@Bell_Mobility) March 13, 2014 Aside from bumping the software to version Android 4.4.2 KitKat, the update also brings some new features and improvements. There is little in terms of visual changes, as most of the enhancements have been made under the hood and are meant to tweak Android users' experience even further.
The most obvious change is the addition of the camera icon in the right corner of the lock screen, which will provide quicker access to its features.
All icons in the notification bar are now white, as opposed to different colors. This change comes in line with Google's UI changes in KitKat that have been embedded for the first time onto Nexus 5.
Some small changes to the virtual keyboard have been made as well, so you will probably notice that now it is slightly easier to type while in landscape mode.
As mentioned earlier, Samsung states that due to some under the hood tweaking, the Galaxy S4 should be a bit faster, but that will probably be noticeable by the average user.
Bell and Rogers deployed Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for Samsung Galaxy S4 around the same time, but that might have been pure coincidence.
The rollout of KitKat for Bell Galaxy S4 will probably continue over the next couple of days, so don't fret if it doesn't show up on your smartphone now.