Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Official Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Update for LG Optimus 4X HD and Optimus L7 Coming end of March



At last, LG officially confirmed in its blog that the Jelly Bean update for our beloved LG Optimus 4X HD (and also the L7) will be available from the LG Update Servers as soon as end of March (less than two weeks from now). The update for the Optimus L9 is already available and you can get it using the LG Update Tool (or through our LG Firmware Central if not available for your model or region).

What has changed in the Jelly Bean Update

With this update, users should expect:

  • "Project Butter" enhancements for an even smoother operation
  • Constant frame rate by Vertical Sync
  • Improved responsiveness
  • Extensible alerts (notifications) and notifications with actions
  • Google Now integration
  • Voice dictate without an internet connection
  • Exchange data via NFC with Android Beam 2.0
  • Support for Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS)
  • and more..

How to update your smartphone

The firmware will be released to unlocked (sim free) handsets by end of this month (March). Owners of carrier branded (locked) smartphones might have to wait a bit longer. Once the firmware is released, the update can be installed using the LG Mobile Support Tool (available for Microsoft Windows PC). It looks like it won't be available as an OTA update this time, but we'll see.

To perform the Jelly Bean update, just follow this "step by step" guide:

  1. Back up all your data before the update.
  2. Download the LG Update Tool for: Optimus 4X HD, Optimus L7, Optimus L9
  3. Install the application on your Windows PC.
  4. Launch the Update Tools application
  5. Click on "Install USB Driver" and choose your smartphone model (4X HD = P880, P700 = L7, L9 = P670) and wait for the download to complete. In case the driver is not installed properly, you can find it on c:\device_name (eg c:\P880 for P880 Optimus 4X HD).
  6. Make sure that the "USB mass storage mode" or "Media transfer mode" is not enabled on your smartphone. Disable this option under Settings/Memory Management/USB storage. Just select the "PC Software" mode.
  7. Connect your smartphone to your PC via USB using the supplied USB cable.
  8. Click on "Launch software update"
  9. Be patient, the update process might take as much as 30 minutes.
  10. When the update is finnished your phone will boot into Jelly Bean. Check the firmware version on your phone settings ("About phone" option).

Now we're (finally!) getting Android 4.1, it's time to start pushing for 4.2 and Key Lime Pie :-)

Source: LG Blog (in Deutsch)