Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 Jelly Bean Review

Time to break from the temporary Hiatus from Sidestrip with a bit of good news. As promised, Samsung has released the latest firmware update for the Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 to the general public here in Asia, specifically the Philippines. They were able to meet the time frame of rolling everything out before the 2nd quarter deadline was over. With that aside, let's take a closer look as to what one will expect to experience and how to troubleshoot some of the little things that I have encountered with the firmware update to Jelly bean 4.1.2.

The software update came just as the Samsung Galaxy S4 started hitting the local market which I believe was done so that people would be able to see the marked difference between the two units even with the upgrade. Though had they rolled this firmware out people would have most likely stuck with the N7000 rather shifting to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2. The logic I believe behind it is due to the fact that now people have something to upgrade to that is more desirable, so to speak.

For those that are still using the Samsung Galaxy Note N7000, there are many things that have been provided for in terms of functionality. If you have had the chance to play around with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and had envied the features such as pop up play, multi-window, and smart stay, you are quite in luck as these features are now fully integrated and functional with the latest JB update. The writing accuracy and overall feel of the S-Pen has also been improved. I am also happy to report that the battery life seems to be better managed with the new firmware as compared to the previous ICS.

With all the buttery smooth functionality that Jelly Bean has promised, you might get a little dismayed upon the first installation of the JB Device. The reason for this is that in order for you to have a smooth transition from ICS to Jelly Bean, you'd have to wipe clean your Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 prior to the update. This is avoid any low memory issues that may occur as you install the new firmware. You also wont be allowed to install Apps to an external SD with Jelly Bean 4.1.2 thus any application that have been working to and from the internal and external SD could cause an issue. So to avoid having to go through the trouble of hard booting your system and wiping it from the start like I did, it would be best to back up your applications and data, then do a full reset of your phone's data and information prior to proceeding with the installation of the Jelly Bean.

If you had unfortunately already done what I have and installed the Jelly Bean Firmware without doing what I mentioned above, you would most likely encounter a glitchy and an extremely lagging UI, that would probably make you want to through the poor thing out the window. Good news is that you don't have to do that, all you have to do is simply do a full reset and just reinstall your applications one by one. I would also recommend to test each app for any compatibility issues with the new firmware. Applications such as Addons Detector and Google Play Music would prove to be quite glitchy. I would also disable Talk Back in the Applications Manager as this too doesn't seem to function well with the new firmware.

Once you have updated it and have cleared past those little bumps, you'll find a rather smooth operating system, giving your unit a brand new feel to it. The Nature UX is pretty impressive and can seemingly perform almost as well as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which is again most likely why they delayed the release of the update to the Samsung Galaxy Note N7000. With both of the units at hand, I still have to attest to the difference in terms of speed and overall performance of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 over Samsung Galaxy Note. But with this new update, the difference isn't so bad so those that own a Samsung Galaxy Note may opt out of upgrading to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and simply wait for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 which should be out sometime by the last quarter of this year.

Till Next Time...

-Metz