Samsung Galaxy Note 2 users, brace yourselves for some disappointing news.
The 2012 flagship phablet will not be update to Android 5.0 Lollipop.
Samsung Gulf announced this by replying to a user’s query on its Facebook page. Whats more, instead of apologizing after announcing the bitter news, the company wished the user to “have a great day”.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was launched in August 2012, with Android 4.1 Jellybean. It was updated to Android 4.3 in November 2013, and finally to Android 4.4 KitKat in April 2014.
The Note II was one one Samsung’s most popular phablets, and is still actively supported by developer communities such as the XDA forums. The device certainly has the hardware to handle Android Lollipop, but this isn’t the first time Samsung has not update a flagship device.
It controversially skipped the Android KitKat update for the Samsung Galaxy S II, stating that the device was not capable of handing the company’s proprietary TouchWiz UI, and that it did not make sense to update the phone with TouchWiz UX, which cuts a lot of features.
The move to not update the Galaxy Note 2 to Lollipop appears more to be a marketing strategy, to push users to buy more recent devices like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and even the 2015 flagship phone, the Galaxy S6.
Update: It appears that the Galaxy Note 2 will be updated to Android Lollipop. More on this here.