Galaxy Note 4 Marshmallow update might be late for carrier units

Samsung and T-Mobile have finally provided confirmation about the handsets that would be getting Google’s new Android 6.0 Marshmallow update. The Galaxy Note 4 is on this list alongside devices launched by Samsung this year and last year as well. Although confirmation of the Galaxy Note 4 Marshmallow update is finally official, that doesn’t entail owners of the device getting the firmware anytime soon.

According to T-Mobile’s listing, the Galaxy Note 4 update firmware is still under manufacturer development, which translates to carriers being delayed in rolling out the update. Like any other software update, the Galaxy Note 4 Marshmallow update first has to go to Samsung so that they can add TouchWIz and do all the tweaks necessary to make the new OS work seamlessly on the device (it probably won’t though). After the manufacturer is done with the firmware, they forward it to carriers.

Carriers then have to make their own tweaks to the OS so that they can include their bloatware as well as features such as Wi-Fi calling and the likes. Everything needs to be tested by the carrier and they have to make sure that they can provide a Galaxy Note 4 update that doesn’t turn the user experience into one from four years ago, filled with bugs. As you can imagine, doing all the tweaking and testing takes time, even if you’ve a team of developers on the job.The Galaxy Note 4 update release date is of course unconfirmed, seeing as neither manufacturers nor carriers like to give precise release dates for updates because there’s a high chance of them not making that deadline.

Bugs in an OS can be discovered in the very last moment, which can delay rollout even further. Regardless, the consensus when it comes to the Galaxy Note 4 update release date is that it should arrive by December. December is an estimation for carrier units, but our best bet would put unlocked units in the same bucket. Samsung is notoriously bad at updates, and so are carriers (T-Mobile being sort of an exception), and even though smartphone users are sick of waiting for updates to have the best experience on their phones, things won’t change from one day to another.Hopefully the Galaxy Note 4 update will have a swift rollout, as it is one of Samsung’s best smartphones to date. The Note 4 was crowned by the Android community as the best smartphone of 2014 in the flagship category, and the device still remains among the top 10 best Android smartphones to have.

The good news is that advanced users can easily get a custom ROM from somewhere and flash it themselves. Note that this action might void your warranty. With the help of such custom ROMs, which you can get from forums such as XDA Developers, Galaxy Note 4 owners can have a fresh user experience without all the wait. We expect the first few Marshmallow-based ROMs to surface in the next few weeks, seeing as someone already created one for the Nexus 4. The one for the Galaxy Note 4 should be ready in no time, thanks to the massive Android developer community that not only loves what they’re doing, but shares everything.