At the moment, the latest iteration of the Google mobile operating system to hit the airwaves is Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. However, with the way things work in the Android ecosystem, only Google developer devices running a pure, untouched version of the Android OS have access to this version of Android. Currently, most of the handsets in the market today are waiting for their turn to get a taste of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the predecessor of Android 4.2.
A couple of high-end devices released last year have already gotten upgraded to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean such as the Samsung Galaxy S III but this is expected given the fact that the handset is the current flagship device of the Korean electronics giant. Looking back, when Google unveiled Android 4.1 Jelly Bean last year, Samsung was one of the first manufacturers to take center stage and let the smartphone-buying population as to what its plans were in getting Jelly Bean to its stable of handsets.
During that time, the Korean electronics giant confirmed that aside from the Samsung Galaxy S III, the Jelly Bean update will also land on the Samsung Galaxy S II, its flagship device from yesteryears. But due to the way the update process works, platform revisions usually get rolled out to unlocked versions before landing on carrier-branded variants.
But if you happen to rock a Samsung Galaxy S II from Bell, the long wait for the arrival of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean on your handset is about to come to a screeching end. As it stands, the carrier is now in the process of rolling out the Android 4.1.2 refresh to its variant of the Samsung Galaxy S II. The update is being rolled out via OTA and Kies so either you wait for the notification that the update has already landed on your handset or hook it up to your PC and fire up the Samsung Kies software to get the update process rolling.
Once applied to the Bell Samsung Galaxy S II, the update will also bring the following goodies and treats to the device:
- Improved performance from Project Butter
- Full User Interface Revamp (Same UI as of the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note II)
- TouchWiz Nature UX
- Samsung’s S Cloud services
- Improved Camera features
- New Lockscreen With Many Customization Options
- New Features like Direct Call, Smart Stay and Pop-up Play
- New Widgets (From Galaxy S III)
- 2 Home screen modes
- New Notification bar With More Notification Toggles
- Google Now
With this development, the once flagship device of the Korean smartphone and tablet manufacturer will get a second lease at life. Not only that, the update to Jelly Bean will also “prettify” the user interface of the handset given the fact that ICS did not bring any visual changes to the UI of the device which was a throwback to the Gingerbread days.
As for the Bell Samsung Galaxy S II, the handset’s circuitry is built around its Exynos chipset which comes with a dual-core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor and a full gigabyte of RAM to ensure the smoothness of its performance. The handset was released in a 16GB version in terms of its internal memory but the handset also comes with a microSD card slot for memory expansion if its internal storage is not yet enough. Display-wise, the Samsung Galaxy S II comes with a 4.3-inch SuperAMOLED panel with a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels while its camera department includes a rear 8MP shooter and a front 2MP video call and self-portrait snapper.
