Samsung's faster flagship launches could soon be paired with faster software upgrades. Android 6.0 has been out for less than a month, and an XDA user with a Galaxy Note 5 on T-Mobile is already running an early build on his phone. It seems to be a fluke, and a big one at that – the device's owner went back to a stock firmware from a custom ROM, and when he tried to do an official update, Marshmallow is what he got.
Based on the screenshots, this doesn't seem to be a fake, even though there seem to be a few UI changes that look rather odd. For example, the camera and phone icons on the lockscreen are the same as the ones on the homescreen, the notification shade is all white even though it seems the default theme is being used, and there are a few other variations in the interface compared to what we have on Lollipop. But the ROM seems to have the new permissions feature of Marshmallow, which doesn't let app access a particular feature on the device unless you give it permission to do so, and the OS version is also mentioned in the phone's recovery mode.
The build number of the firmware is MRA58K.N920TUVU2DOK5, and considering the phone's radio doesn't work on the build, it's not too close to a final version. Yet, even if this is an early build, it suggests that Samsung could start rolling out Marshmallow to at least the Note 5 before the end of this year. As always, nothing is certain until we come across something official, so don't get too excited about seeing Android 6.0 on Samsung's most complete flagship smartphone.
