Android 4.4 KitKat update comes to Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in India

It may be under a cloud of controversy , but Samsung’s Android 4.4 KitKat update for its latest Note flagship, the Galaxy Note 3 has started hitting Indian models. The update, which started rolling out earlier this month in some European countries, doesn’t change much in terms of the UI, but there are a few notable improvements.

Clocking in at 361MB, the update should be hitting all Indian models soon, but is likely being rolled out in phases, so don’t fret if your device isn’t seeing it yet. It’s very much like the leaked build that emerged earlier . While there aren’t sweeping changes in how things look on the Note 3, the eagle eye among you would have noticed the few UI changes that Samsung did roll out. The one most visible is the presence of white notification icons, instead of Samsung’s mish-mash of green and blue icons for indicators. This is in line with Google’s stock Android notification icon colours.

As is the norm with KitKat, the lockscreen also has some changes. The album art of the currently playing song now takes up the whole 5.7-inch display of the Note 3 with controls on the top half. This makes great use of the 1080p resolution to show high-res album art. You will also find a new camera shortcut button, which takes you to the app from the lockscreen. Also improving is the performance of the already beastly phone, which is said to have gotten faster in both actual usage and benchmarks.

Overall, the changes are very similar to the ones seen on the KitKat build for the Galaxy S4, but one major criticism has been that KitKat breaks functionality of some third-party accessories. Not if you ask Samsung though, who maintain that the update does not affect accessories for the phablet .