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Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update device likelihoods

At Google’s recent I/O conference the latest update for the Android operating system, 4.1 Jelly Bean, was unveiled. This was met with widespread approval, bringing plenty of new features such as Project Butter for performance, improved Notifications, Enhanced Voice Search and Google Now. As usual with an OS update though, what everybody most wants to know is if and when their device will receive it so today we’re looking at 4.1 Jelly Bean update likelihoods.

We’ve been bringing you plenty of posts about Jelly Bean so if you want to check out more about the next Android OS then check out some of our previous articles here. Some of you will already have heard the news when it was officially announced that the first device launched running on it would be the Google Nexus 7 tablet to be released this month. The first existing devices to get a flavor of Jelly Bean were announced as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Nexus S smartphones and the Motorola Xoom tablet and those updates are all expected from mid-July. However, what about all the other devices that readers may have in their hands right now, hoping for Jelly Bean?

There have been many Android smartphone owners who have felt let down by the speed that Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich is being pushed out, with only a small minority of devices receiving the update so far despite the fact that it arrived at the end of last year. Not only do the different manufacturers have to prepare the update but also then carriers deem when to push the update out and this is the reason why there can be a myriad of difficulties and delays with updates and why some devices never receive them. We know from many reader’s comments about ICS how frustrating many of you have found the wait for ICS and before many people have received ICS here comes Jelly Bean!

Over on Android Central they’ve helpfully taken a look at various manufacturers devices and the chances of those devices receiving Jelly Bean so let’s kick off with a look at HTC and what the people with experience think. Very likely candidates to receive the update are the HTC One X, One XL and EVO LTE that all use HTC Sense 4.0. This is why Jelly Bean updates for the HTC Vivid and Rezound are less likely though as it’s thought that HTC might not feel it’s worth the investment to port Jelly Bean into older versions of Sense, even though the hardware would be adequate. More questionable is the HTC One V, a less powerful phone although Jelly Bean might come because this is another handset using HTC Sense 4.0. Devices seen as unlikely to receive Jelly Bean are the Sensations phones or the Amaze.

Onto Samsung devices next and the Galaxy S3 (S III) is a definite candidate for Jelly Bean along with the Galaxy Note. However Android Central doesn’t feel that the update will get to the Note before the Galaxy Note 2 comes out later this year as all the effort will be placed on getting that ready first. The Galaxy S2 is also likely to receive Jelly Bean although again it may take some time to come considering that Samsung is likely to work on Jelly Bean with current versions of its TouchWiz interface first. Apart from that though the news isn’t promising for any other Samsung devices and they are unlikely to ever taste Jelly Bean.

Next we look at Motorola and it’s felt that the Droid RAZR and RAZR MAXX are both very likely to get the update along with any phones after those. Although the Motorola Photon and Bionic are up to the job it seems unlikely that Motorola will push Jelly Bean to those two handsets, as they are no longer in the spotlight. Also it looks as though there’s very little chance of seeing Jelly Bean for QWERTY Droid handsets so if you have a Droid 4 it’s not looking good.

Moving on to LG and this one is short and sweet with basically the only handsets likely to receive Jelly Bean being the Optimus 4X HD and the Optimus LTE 2 and possibly the Optimus Vu. Sadly if you have a Sony device the possibility of Jelly Bean looks very slim. It’s pointed out that for a while Sony was doing a pretty good job with OS updates but that that all seemed to come to a stop. As one of the latest Sony phones, the Xperia ion, released on 2.3 Gingerbread it doesn’t appear that Sony has much interest in the latest developments and any Sony device that does get Jelly Bean will be a rarity.

For all of the other OEM’s such as Pantech and Huawei it’s much harder to predict whether they will push out Jelly Bean updates so at this stage it’s anyone’s guess. As for tablet devices then check out the Android Central link earlier if you want more information on Jelly Bean for those. We must remind you that the above information is in no way official but does come from people who have vast experience with Android updates and at least gives a general idea of what might come about.

Are you hoping to see the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update arrive for your phone? Do you hope that the next OS upgrade is pushed out to your device sooner than previous updates have been? Let us know with your comments.

Comments

29 thoughts on “Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update device likelihoods”

  1. chandler says:

    The HTC vivid should get jelly bean it has the hardware to support it and its not even that old it should be available to a lot more phones I will not purchase another HTC phone or support android anymore if it doesn’t for my phone or a lot more capable phones

  2. Captainbc52 says:

    Just got ICS on my RAZR…its great! Jelly bean would be much smoother though. Looking forward to it. Hope we don’t have to wait forever for it like ICS though.

  3. Traz says:

    Just bought a Samsung Galaxy S 3 & get it this week. When they said it had Icecrean sandwich I was excited that it had the latest & greatest….then I see there is already a new version & my phone OS will be out of date before even getting it.  This updrades need to be quicker.

  4. Marc_Bills says:

    Ugh I’m so tired of HTC lacking in their updates for their higher end phones. If they don’t feel that they want to port it back to sense 3.6, then update the damn vivid to 4.0. So irritating. I’m never buying HTC or Samsung again, too often do I purchase a high spec’d phone from them that just ends up being left by the wayside receiving no update. Only going with Google from now on, I just wish the Galaxy Nexus had LTE on AT&T.

  5. BaseBeat5 says:

    Im tired of this whole process. All these companies suck. I have a Droid4 and only got it after being told it was getting a now out of date system. I wish there was a way to hold them accountable to actually do their jobs and follow through. But they know, as do I, that cups and string just arent gonna cut it. So i take what i get and pay my bill, just hoping for now for out of date software. Dumb.

    1. I also have a Droid 4 and would love to see JB on it, but if we don’t, how is that not doing their jobs? The phone was promised ICS and it was delivered. They never promised JB. I HATE iOS and the iPhone, but they do tend to get software updates “for a while”. Even Apple never says when a phone will stop being updated. Android is a superior system in my opinion, not only in functionality but with technology as well. However the update process simply does not work the same way as an Apple device. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just “different”. Stop expecting phones to be updated indefinitely. It just not within the scope of reality with any Android device. The good thing is you can root it and put JB on it when the source code is released and the community ports it. It’s not a perfect solution, but is is a solution.
      We can hold out hope that Google will take more control of Motorola and push out some vanilla updates for some older phones. I see this as an unlikely possibility though, but I think that will happen with future Motorola phones that are developed and released under the Google ownership.

  6. Ksprbob says:

    I’m sorry that my Photon is no longer  in “the” spotlight as it now seems for Jelly Bean OS I was sold on the idea that any Android phone would have access to what ever may come in the way of new software.  Too bad I can’t trust my provider’s representative for factual information. ksprbob

  7. when the guy was mention sony phones he said “that that”…so i take it no one edits these news feeds before posting. Oh and I believe all Sony’s current line up of phones are running 4.0.4 ICS. So I will look forward to JB being released on most if not all there devices.

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