Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A I9506 Gets Android 5.0.1 Lollipop Update; Firmware Heavy

The Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A I9506 or S4 LTE+ owners have something to cheer about after a long wait, as the Android 5.0.1 Lollipop update is being rolled out to the device before its official announcement.

A third-party firmware databases has made Android 5.0.1 Lollipop available for download and it comes with firmware build I9506XXUDOA6, according to a report by The Android Soul (via Samsung Updates). The update is only for GT-I9506 variant of Galaxy S4 and not official. Over-the-air (OTA) update of the software is expected to come to the device a little later.

According to a report by GSMArena, the Android 5.0.1 Lollipop update is already available for SIM-free devices in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and "Vodafone handsets in Germany and the Czech Republic." It went on to add that the firmware is a heavy one, taking 1.2GB for phones in European countries. 

It may be mentioned that Android 5.0.1 Lollipop OTA update has been rolled out to the Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 (with Exynos 5 Octa-core CPU) in Russia earlier this week. The file is said to be heavy taking more than 1GB space. It's reported that apps like Google Play, Books, Movies and a few others are removed during installation but they could be re-installed after running the new software.

Surprisingly, Samsung's flagship devices like the Galaxy Note 4 and Note 3 are yet to receive Lollipop, which could disappoint many users of the devices. New firmware usually comes to flagship devices first but it's not the case with Note devices, and the reason seems to be a glitch in the Oculus VR.

HTC also missed its 90-day roll-out dateline for the HTC One (M7) and (M8) to technical issues and bugs. Motorola also faced issues initially but it has started pushing out the firmware to its devices after fixing bugs.