Sprint deserved a bit of appreciation for the way in which they released Android M updates for their Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy Note 4 smartphones on the same day, followed by more of the same for the S6 Edge+ the next day. However, that was half a month ago and today we have more good news for Sprint customers. The Galaxy S5 has just started receiving its Android Marshmallow updates and Sprint is probably the first carrier in the US to update its S5 smartphones with it. Prior to this, Trinidad and Tobago was the only other country to have received Android Marshmallow for the S5, apart from Samsung's country of origin, South Korea of course.
The new update will change your S5's build number to G900PVPU3CPCA, and base Android version to Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. We expect new features like Google Now on Tap, Doze Mode and Touch Search to make their way onto the S5 with this upgrade. More details on battery usage, the ability to customize permissions for individual applications and the freedom to use an external memory card as the internal memory of the smartphone are some of the features that come preloaded with Android M updates, but we will have to wait and see to find out if all of them are included in this version.
If you own a Galaxy S5 in the US from any other carrier apart from Sprint, this is also good news for you because it means that other carriers will soon follow suit.
The international Galaxy Note 4 with the model number N910C has started receiving its Android M update from Samsung. This version of the Galaxy Note 4 is powered by Samsung's own Exynos 5433 processor, unlike the US version which is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 SoC.
The 1.3GB update is expected to bring new features to the Note 4 as is common with Android 6.0.1 devices, but people have also reported that the Screen-Off Memo capabilities seen on the Galaxy Note 5 is now a part of the Note 4 as well, after the upgrade. It seems like a good addition to TouchWiz by Samsung and a nice gesture towards their older customers.
On the other hand, the only carrier-locked US model of the Note 4 that has been upgraded to Android M yet is the Sprint version of it. However, it is expected that other carriers will follow suit very soon. If you want to check if your update has arrived yet, just go to Settings, open About device and Check for updates. Once the update arrives, you will be notified and from there onwards, you can choose when to download the package and when to complete the installation. If you are in the US and Sprint is not your carrier, you might have to wait for a while longer though.
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Samsung has usually unveiled the new Galaxy Note devices at the IFA trade show during the autumn season but it has become quite a practice for rumor mongers to spread the word that this year the device will be available sooner. This speculation is repeated at the beginning of every year when the new Galaxy S variants are speculated to reach public early and then after couple of months same goes for the next Galaxy Note device. Exactly the same thing is happening in case of the prediction coming out of Korea - "the Galaxy Note 6 will be in the market around July of this year along with Android N OS".
Android N is supposed to be the next important update for Google's open-source mobile OS and although a developer edition has been rolled out, the update doesn't have an official stamp till now. Google has already informed that device makers will get access to Android N this summer so the Korean giant will need to work super fast to get the firmware's support for the Galaxy Note 6. This is crucial for Samsung, if they are interested in releasing the flagship device with the latest Android flavor. Taking into consideration Samsung's slowness with respect to updates, this seems farfetched.
The Galaxy S6 series received the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update in India last week coinciding with the launch date of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge. Samsung is now rolling out Marshmallow to the Galaxy Note 5 in India. Apart from US, this country is one of the few major markets where the Note 5 was released, and the purchasers of Samsung's most notable phablet from India now have access to the latest Android version.
The over the air update size is 1269 MB and the firmware version shows up as N920GDDU2BPC4 after applying the update. Marshmallow for the Note 5 is basically the same as that of the Galaxy S6 series, with an improved user interface (along with the new animations available in the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge), Google Now on Tap, extensive app permissions, and more. The message displayed after the update, informs about the features like automatic deletion of unwanted cache files and superior memory management.
If the update hasn't yet come up on your Note 5, you can open up Settings » About device » Software update menu and tap the Update now button to receive it. Do post your comments if you have received this update.
AMOLED panels are superior to LCD panels in color reproduction, brightness, contrast, saturation and power efficiency. This might raise the question, why AMOLED panels are not used more widely then? The answer "used to be" that AMOLED displays are more expensive to make compared to LCD panels. This however, is not a valid answer anymore because the manufacturing cost of an AMOLED panel has now fallen below even that of an LCD.
According to reports from IHS Technology, production costs for AMOLED panels have become lesser than even the LCD in just twenty-four months time and even that was predicted roughly two years ago by experts! As things stand now in Q1 2016, a 5" FHD AMOLED display designed for smartphones should cost around $14.30 to manufacture. The same 5" FHD LTPS LCD panel on the other hand is manufactured at a cost of $14.60 apparently. Once you consider an older piece of data which shows that the same AMOLED panel would cost the manufacturer $17.10 to make in 2015, while the LCD panel was only slightly more expensive at $15.70, things start to look a lot more impressive.
Keep in mind that the LTPS LCD (low Temperature Poly-Silicon Liquid Crystal Display) mentioned is the same one that is widely used and considered as the most efficient version of the LCD technology. It seems that the days of the LCD are numbered as smartphone displays will most likely soon be dominated by the mighty AMOLED now.
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