When you think of Android manufacturers with an excellent reputation for keeping their phones up to date, who’s the first company you think of? Usually people would go to Motorola, Samsung, HTC or even Sony, but you wouldn’t ever think of LG or some of the other companies that like to just drop a product onto the market and completely forget about it, right? That’s exactly what happened with LG’s 2012 flagship, the Optimus G, which launched with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and was eventually upgraded to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. This is ironic because the Optimus G is more or less the same product as the Nexus 4, which Google has brought up to Android 4.4 KitKat. Often times this happens with Android phones that are skinned by the manufacturer like Samsung devices for instance, and will never receive more than one or two major updates in its lifetime. Thankfully LG is trying to prove itself worthy of the title of next big contender and is rolling out the Android 4.4 KitKat for Estonian Optimus G owners.
Wait, what? Yes that’s right, LG went from Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to Android 4.4 KitKat in one fell swoop. In a Facebook post (that has since been removed), LG Estonia announced the update seemingly out of nowhere. With no rumors of the update even coming and in one of the smaller countries that the LG Optimus G was launched in no less, the year-old flagship phone is now one of the cream-of-the-crop that has Android 4.4 KitKat. This places it among the elite who have received the official update; the Nexus 5 (which shipped with KitKat), the Nexus 4 and of course the Moto X. Since the other 3 phones are Google phones, and Google worked with LG for both the Nexus 4 and 5, it’s not entirely surprising to see this update roll out, but it is rather exciting.
Android 4.4 KitKat is the first version of Android launched since Google changed how it delivers code to manufacturers, so this might just be the fruits of Google’s labor for that project. Essentially Google releases parts of the code as they finish it to manufacturers, giving them a head start on getting their ever-famous skins working with the newest version of Google’s mobile OS. We’ll likely see this update pushed out to the Optimus G across the globe, hopefully including US carriers versions as well. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we hear something!
Update: According to LG Estonia, the update that pushed out this week for the Optimus G was not for Android 4.4 KitKat. But rather an update for 4G internet capability to users in Estonia.