Android 4.3 rollout for Samsung Galaxy S4 resumes
Samsung has resumed its Android 4.3 roll-out to Galaxy S4 devices after pausing the upgrade last month when Galaxy S3 owners complained it was causing stability problems.
Samsung initially stalled the update in November to investigate reports 4.3 was causing numerous issues including battery drain.
However, the update is now once again heading to Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S4 owners in the US and Europe.
US carriers AT&T and T-Mobile confirmed they had resumed their respective 4.3 roll-outs last week, with S4 owners in Europe reportedly seeing the update come through there also. (ZDNet has sought confirmation from Samsung UK about the rollout in Europe and we'll update the story if any answer comes through.)
Android 4.3 will also be released for Galaxy Note 2, and brings Galaxy Gear compatibility and Knox security features. It's unlikely to be a long lived update, however, with the rollout of KitKat 4.4 thought to the be on the way in the coming months.
While it's not yet known when the Galaxy S4 or recently released Gear-ready Galaxy Note 3 will be given the Android 4.4 KitKat treatment from Samsung, the Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition has already received the OS update.
Samsung might be the maker of the most popular Android phones, but fans of the latest Android builds might be better served by rivals such as HTC, which was quicker off the mark: HTC has released 4.3 to HTC One devices and also confirmed a late January start to its 4.4 rollout for HTC One in the UK and US.
In the US, meanwhile, consumers looking for the fastest operating system updates should turn their attention to Google's Moto X devices, which were the first devices besides Google's Nexus line-up and Google Play Edition devices to get KitKat.