As January comes to a close, all those manufacturers who had been promising that they would update their main lines of smartphones to Android 5.0 (Lollipop), within that self-imposed ninety-day barrier will be feeling the heat. It might have sounded like a long time back then, but that ninety-day marker is now quickly approaching. One of those who was making such claims was Samsung and they seem to be making good on their promises. We have already heard about Lollipop being sent out to test in a number of markets and devices.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 was one of those devices which we have seen and heard of various leaked screenshots, videos and beta testing going on. Which was good news for the owners of the 2013 flagship device, as the Galaxy S4 is now on the cusp of becoming one of those “out-of-update-warranty’ devices as it hits its two year anniversary. Well, if you are a Galaxy S4 owner then it looks like today could be an interesting day for you. Reports are coming in that the official firmware for Android 5.0 for the S4 has leaked online. In terms of leaking, the firmware does seem to have come from a Chinese source. However, it is already picking up consistent responses from the S4 community that it is the real deal. Not to mention, it has also gone live on XDA. The users on there are also noting that it is does indeed seem to be the original firmware.
According to the reports, the firmware is based on Lollipop 5.0.1 and as you would expect is heavily TouchWiz laden. According to the reports, there does not seem to be any major bugs noted with all major aspects present, fine and correct. The only notable ‘issue’, which might be worth mentioning is that language options are a bit limited with only English and Chinese available. So do not be surprised if you install and find the odd Chinese message. If you are planning on giving this a try, then this is an Odin job. You will need Odin installed, you will need to flash the firmware and you do need to make sure you have backed up your data. You will lose everything as the firmware will factory reset and erase your device during installation. At present, the build has been noted working with various versions of the S4 including GT-I9500, GT-I9502, GT-I9508, and GT-I9508v. Although, not all versions might be compatible. Either way, if you want to give it a go then either hit up the source link below or click here to head over to XDA. Make sure to let us know what you think after installing.