New list of Samsung handsets that are upgradeable to Android KitKat excludes the Galaxy S3 GT-I9300

posted by Florin T. / May 07, 2014, 12:49 PM

New list of Samsung handsets that are upgradeable to Android KitKat excludes the Galaxy S3 GT-I9300

Want to know when your older Samsung handset is going to get Android 4.4 KitKat? SamMobile has received a list of select Samsung devices that still run Android Jelly Bean and should be updated to KitKat soon. Of course, we already knew that these would get a taste of KitKat, but now it appears that we also know when it’s supposed to happen.

Here are the devices that should get KitKat starting this month (May): Galaxy Note II LTE SM-N7105, Galaxy Note 3 Neo SM-N750, and Galaxy S III LTE (Sprint’s variant already received the update last week). The month of June is expected to bring KitKat to the following Samsung handsets: Galaxy S4 Mini (LTE and non-LTE), Galaxy Mega 5.8, Galaxy Mega 6.3, and Galaxy Grand 2.

Unfortunately, it looks like the KitKat update for the Galaxy S III GT-I9300 (the version without LTE) “has been cancelled due to unsolved problems.” Still, S3 GT-I9300 users should hope that Samsung will eventually find a way around these alleged problems. We’ll certainly keep an eye on this, and let you know when official details are available.

source: Sam Mobile

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39 Comments

1. ThePython

Posts: 902; Member since: May 08, 2013

That shows how much Samsung respects its consumers.

posted on May 07, 2014, 12:56 PM 11

3. Doakie

Posts: 2454; Member since: May 06, 2009

It's a phone that was released 24 months ago. I've had three phones since my Galaxy S 3, it's time for them to stop support on it. They promised 24 months of updates. Its 24 months after launch. Done.

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:04 PM 4

5. draconic1991

Posts: 200; Member since: Apr 27, 2012

Then they shudnt have released it for other variants as well if they wanted to maintain the 18 mnth cycle...

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:06 PM 2

10. sgodsell

Posts: 6640; Member since: Mar 16, 2013

One major thing people don't seem to have a clue in regards in storage. All phones have some type of flash storage (eMMC, ...). Then after a period of time the storage and speed will degrade. Even if you introduce things like trim in Android 4.3+. Ultimately its just better to upgrade the device, or don't store things on your phones, or store things on external storage (micro SD, cloud) ;-) I can't wait for project Ara to take off.

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:35 PM 0

9. NokiaFTW

Posts: 2072; Member since: Oct 24, 2012

Samsung support their flagships for at least 24 months. However, since the release of the S3, there have been four updates to the Android OS. Samsung have provided updates for 4.1 & then a direct update to 4.3. Android KitKat (4.4) was also released during this 24 month period. Hence, Samsung should also provide the KitKat update for the S3. Updating just the LTE variants of the phone shows Samsung doesn't have confidence in its UI to holdup on 1GB of RAM. Android KitKat has been optimized for devices with even 512MB of RAM. So there's no reason that the international S3 with 1GB of RAM can't handle KitKat. This is not great support from Samsung you know.

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:26 PM 1

13. TheGenius

Posts: 339; Member since: Mar 06, 2014

Are you here just to speak garbage ot did you actually read the article.? It clearly states that update for int s3 was cancelled due to some unsolved problem.! Now if they cant fix it .. then there's no point in releasing an update as it will degrade the performance of the device.

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:59 PM 2

16. sgodsell

Posts: 6640; Member since: Mar 16, 2013

I just heard from a friend that there are some GPU issues with the older Mali-400MP4 GPU. KitKat is more demanding on the GPU, since they updated the requirements to KitKat. It requires Opengl ES 2.0 now. I know that GPU is suppose to handle 2.0, but I heard there is something wrong with Samsung's Exynos version of the Mali-400MP4 GPU. Its not fully up to the 2.0 spec. That's what I was told today.

posted on May 07, 2014, 3:45 PM 0

26. yowanvista

Posts: 341; Member since: Sep 20, 2011

There is no such 'older Mali-400MP4', they're similar any minor revision (if any) share the same design basis. The IP design or core might undergo several changes at the silicon level (eg leakage fixes or minor thermal desigb improvements) but the GPU as seen by the software is identical. KiKat GPU usage is neither higher nor does it rely on any newer specific OpenGL ES extensions (Mali-400 already supports ES2.0). The problem here is rather centered around this particular Exynos SoC and its rather troublesome binaries/blobs or sources. Keep in mind that it was originally targeted at ICS when first released so it takes quite some time to implement new changes introduced by newer Android versions in this specific Exynos kernel. The latter has never been upgraded and Samsung just kept backporting patches from newer kernel versions (3.4) into theirs for each major Android firmware update (notice that all S3 kernel versions are 3.0.18 instead of 3.4.x). Samsung just kept backporting things into their half baked kernel, problems were already apparent by the 4.3 upgrade which had issues related to the power management IC for instance. It was inevitable that they'd run into issues down that road and all seems to indicate that this has just started to happen, at least with either their messed up sources or PDK.

posted on May 07, 2014, 8:06 PM 0

28. nlbates66

Posts: 328; Member since: Aug 15, 2012

the Galaxy S III i9305 has the same GPU as the i9300, and it's getting the update, so either that's untrue or the LTE version (i9305) has a revised chip.

posted on May 07, 2014, 11:05 PM 0

14. ThePython

Posts: 902; Member since: May 08, 2013

It's a phone released two years ago that sold almost as much as the following two flagships combined. It's a matter of respect.

posted on May 07, 2014, 2:06 PM 0

27. VZWuser76

Posts: 4974; Member since: Mar 04, 2010

While we are at 24 months from the S3's release, 4.4 KitKat was released end of October last year, that's 7 months ago. This was the phone that put them on Apple's level as far as phone sales go. As I understand it the only one of the S3 variants not getting the update is the model with Samsung's own processor. I could understand when they didn't upgrade the Galaxy Nexus since Ti pulled out of the mobile industry and there were no drivers for it. But this is their own processor. KitKat was released when the S3 was 17 months into it's life cycle, they should at least honor their commitment, and not drag their feet and say now that they can't do it. Just yesterday the RAZR Maxx HD was announced to start a soak test for 4.4.2. If they can do it I can't imagine why Samsung with all their resources couldn't do it as well. Many are saying it's just business and that's true. But why stop there? Why not stop providing updates and force everyone to upgrade their phone every time a new major OS update comes out? It'd be a lot more profitable for the OEMS that's for sure.

posted on May 07, 2014, 8:08 PM 0

17. RORYREVOLUTION

Posts: 3131; Member since: Jan 12, 2010

Please tell me how great of a job HTC, LG, and Sony are all supporting their devices that are over 24 months old.

posted on May 07, 2014, 4:02 PM 3

19. panjgoori

Posts: 22; Member since: Nov 17, 2012

yes. atleast they are much much better than Sony. Once sony sold their phone to the people they forgets about them as they never sold any phone.

posted on May 07, 2014, 4:14 PM 2

25. InspectorGadget80 unregistered

with a billion served world wide they will UPDATE the OS.

posted on May 07, 2014, 7:00 PM 1

34. kabhijeet.16

Posts: 882; Member since: Dec 05, 2012

OMG.. Ppl making big fuss about nothing (so many comments here for nothing) N/a means information is Not Available. ppl must wait for Samsung's official announcement that it wont be available. This pic is only showing that information is Not AVailable...

posted on May 08, 2014, 3:11 AM 0

39. samsungfan21

Posts: 1; Member since: Nov 12, 2014

they forgot about samsung galaxy s2 why???? take an example the Samsung galaxy ace 4 is only 1.0 ghz dual-core and it has 4.4.2 and samsung galaxy s2 has 1.2 dual core and it has 4.1.2

posted on Nov 12, 2014, 10:44 AM 0

2. YusufAli

Posts: 3; Member since: May 07, 2014

The Galaxy S3 GT-I9300 is very well capable of Kitkat. Touchwiz is to blame.

posted on May 07, 2014, 12:57 PM 1

4. draconic1991

Posts: 200; Member since: Apr 27, 2012

please explain this to me.....in the update to 4.3 the os itself uses some amount of ram and some is used by the skin....now comes kitkat which uses less ram than 4.3....so what kind of stupid things were they planning to put in the already crappy touch wiz that overall consumption of kitkat increases???

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:05 PM 0

23. 1ceTr0n

Posts: 549; Member since: May 20, 2012

LTE version uses touchwiz also, so your point is invalid. Its the LTE radio

posted on May 07, 2014, 6:42 PM 2

32. RebelwithoutaClue

Posts: 5473; Member since: Apr 05, 2013

But the LTE (i9305) version has 2GB as well, the I9300 only 1GB.

posted on May 08, 2014, 2:33 AM 0

6. DEATHSTROKE9

Posts: 399; Member since: Nov 09, 2013

Guys lets all switch to cm11 (running well on my Gt i19300).

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:15 PM 3

7. tech2

Posts: 3487; Member since: Oct 26, 2012

So Snapdragon is being given the update and its exynos rival isn't ? It should've been other way round, Samsung. Way to treat your own processors ....smh...

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:23 PM 3

8. hmd74

Posts: 539; Member since: Jan 31, 2013

S3 Mini?

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:26 PM 0

11. noim1

Posts: 297; Member since: May 15, 2012

Unsolved Problems my ASS !!! Samsung just say it out lout that you will not give KitKat to the International versions ... The RAM thing is just Bull Crap , then how is samsung's new handsets with 512mb ram running KitKat ???

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:36 PM 1

12. NokiaFTW

Posts: 2072; Member since: Oct 24, 2012

This is a business model dude. Sammy want the S3 owners to dump their phone and bump up to the newer S5. The only way they can do that is to stop supporting the older phone.

posted on May 07, 2014, 1:52 PM 0

15. loki1618

Posts: 22; Member since: Aug 14, 2012

What happen to the S4 Active?

posted on May 07, 2014, 3:31 PM 1

18. jczepole

Posts: 19; Member since: Nov 02, 2011

Where the heck is the update for the Verizon Note 3?

posted on May 07, 2014, 4:06 PM 0

20. PapaSmurf

Posts: 10457; Member since: May 14, 2012

What happened to the Galaxy Light? Since it's similar to the S4 mini, I'm assuming it's getting the update as well?

posted on May 07, 2014, 4:34 PM 1

31. Berzerk000

Posts: 4275; Member since: Jun 26, 2011

Just because it's similar doesn't mean it's getting the update, especially since it's only available on a single carrier. Galaxy S2 (Snapdragon S3, 1 GB RAM, 480x800 display, available around the world) - updated to 4.1 Galaxy S Blaze (Snapdragon S3, 1 GB RAM, 480x800 display, only available on T-Mobile) - left at 4.0.