Folks, after watching Motorola push some latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat goodness to its devices, we got a bit jealous – to be honest. So to get rid of our jealousy phase, we contacted our elite friends and got a treat for all of us Galaxy S4 users! We obtained a brand new Android 4.4.2 test firmware – I9505XXUFNA1 – for the Samsung Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505).
We are expecting Samsung to start officially rolling out the Android 4.4 KitKat update for the Galaxy S4 in February/March. We have been testing this particular build for about 5 days now and so far it's been pretty stable, except a few minor hiccups here and there but these are expected as this is still a test build.
There are minor UI changes in Android 4.4.2 KitKat, the most noticeable being the status bar icons being changed from Gingerbread style green to all new awesome KitKat style white. BTW, white icons look stunning on top of the transparent status bar. We have seen a little bump is performance, and benchmark scores have slightly increased as well. Samsung's keyboard layout has been improved in landscape orientation, which makes typing much easier and gesture typing works really well too. Samsung has implemented a camera shortcut direct on its lockscreen.
Model: GT-I9505
Country: Open Europe
Version: Android 4.4.2
Changelist: 276328
Build date: Thu, 2 Jan 2014 23:30:51 +0000
Product Code: OXA
PDA: I9505XXUFNA1
CSC: I9505OXAFNA1
MODEM: I9505XXUFNA1
Download: I9505XXUFNA1_I9505OXAFNA1_I9505XXUFNA1_OXA.zip
NOTE
– You are doing this at your OWN risk. We are not responsible if you brick your device or your cat eats your phone.
– This test firmware will NOT increase your binary counter NOR void your warranty.
– This test firmware is a pre-release build and not official from Samsung.
INSTRUCTIONS
– Extract (unzip) the firmware file
– Download Odin3 v3.09 (From here or here)
– Extract Odin .ZIP file
– Open Odin3 v3.09
– Restart phone in download mode (Press and hold Home + Power + Volume down buttons)
– Connect phone and wait until you get a blue sign in Odin
– Add I9505XXUFNA1_I9505OXAFNA1_I9505XXUFNA1_HOME.tar.md5 to AP
– Make sure re-partition is NOT ticked
– Click start button, sit back and wait a few minutes.
– If you encounter any issues with the firmware (Any FC, Bootloop etc)
– Boot into recovery mode (Home+power+vol up)
– Choose to wipe/factory reset. (THIS WILL ERASE ALL OF YOUR DATA INCLUDING YOUR INTERNAL SD CARD!)
– Then choose reboot and you should be good to go!
Screenshots
