Chasing the next big Android update is always at the top of the headlines for most Android-powered devices out there, especially the ones that fit in the more premium segment of the market. Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 fits squarely in this description, costing customers nearly $1,000 when it first landed on the market and still going for well over $500 in most places. Samsung launched the Note 4 with Android 4.4 KitKat, which at the time was the latest version of Android. Many of the UI changes Samsung made with the Note 4’s version of KitKat closely resembled changes Google made with Android 5.0 Lollipop in the developer preview from last summer. This helped tide Note 4 users over until the actual Note 4 Android 5.0 update came out more than 6 months later.
Now we’re looking at the next version of Android that’s currently available, Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. 5.1 brought about a handful of UI tweaks for stock Android including the ability to quickly switch between WiFi networks and Bluetooth devices, among new animations for Material Design apps and other tweaks. These changes will likely be making their way into the Android 5.1.1 update for the Galaxy Note 4 as we’ve seen with the Galaxy S6’s Android 5.1.1 Preview. As is usual there’s no official timeline on the release of this update, but it’s likely to come sometime around August before the Galaxy Note 5 is announced in September.
This update will also come before the big Android M release, which is Google’s next big version of Android. Android M, as it’s currently called before an official name or version number is given, is slated to be released later this fall, likely sometime around November. This means the Note 5 is likely to ship with Android 5.1 Lollipop as well, bringing version parity to all of Samsung’s latest devices by the time it comes out. The rumor is that Samsung may be upgrading the system to a 64-bit software architecture since the International variant of the Note 4 housed Samsung’s first in-house 64-bit chipset, but has yet to actually be running a 64-bit version of Android. The images below show 64-bit AnTuTu running on a Note 4, showing the possibility of this rumor actually becoming true.
