No Jelly Bean for the Samsung Galaxy S2? That’s what it sounds like. Samsung is stating that due to hardware limitations, the top selling Android smartphone Galaxy S2 will not be upgradeable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
What are those hardware limitations ? They include screen resolution and processor limitation to experience the best of Jelly Bean. For instance, to run smoothly, Jelly Bean should be installed on quad-core devices such as the latest Samsung Galaxy S3.
On the other hand, Google’s flagship device – the Samsung Galaxy Nexus will be updatable to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean despite being a dual-core smartphone just as the Samsung Galaxy S2 is. Why is that? Probably because the Nexus device runs only an Android OS version with no third party overlay, whereas the Samsung Galaxy S2 runs an Android OS overlayed by Samsung’s own TouchWiz. Hence twice as much processing effort, hindering Jelly Bean’s smoothness.
For now, the fate of the Samsung Galaxy S2 update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has not been cast in stone, but it is rather unlikely. The two confirmed devices by Samsung that will run Jelly Bean are the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S3. How about the North American version of the Samsung Galaxy S3? More devices to be confirmed in the near future.
