Report: Samsung Galaxy S4 receiving Lollipop 5.0.1 in Russia

As we now progress into the second month of 2015, word has it that Samsung is providing a Lollipop update to the Galaxy S4 in Russia. While it is neither the first Galaxy phone to receive Android 5.0, nor the first Galaxy S4 variant, it stands as an achievement for the fact that Samsung has brought the new OS build to hardware that is approaching the two year mark.

The device in question is the GT-I9500, Exynos-variant, and it is receiving 5.0.1 to be precise. The update is so large that several Google Applications (Books, Play Movies and others) need to be removed in order to facilitate the 1049.17MB download file. The Software Update screen also indicates that the OS will take up an additional 950MB beyond what was previously allocated to the OS, thus ensuring that users have less on-board storage space to work with.

Now with Lollipop, the S4 joins the Russian Galaxy Note 3 to round out 2013’s flagship updates.  With this out of the way, it’s possible Samsung will begin working on its rumored Galaxy Note 2 Lollipop update, as well as disseminating the Note 3 and S4 OTA to other territories.

While owners of handsets might be breathing a sigh of relief, the same can’t be said for anyone who owns a Samsung tablet, of which there were almost a dozen variants released last year alone, though not a single one has received an update to the new OS build. The most likely candidates are the two Galaxy Tab S variants given their flagship status, however it’s now going on a third month since the release of Lollipop and Samsung is still mum on any details. To be sure there is significantly more work to be done in updating the tablet OS given its unique Magazine UX scheme, although at the very least a timeline would be appreciated.