Rumor: Android 4.3 Jelly Bean coming in July to Galaxy S4 Google Play edition [Update: screenshots]

A fresh rumor says that Samsung will soon update its Galaxy S4 Google Play edition to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, which is the next expected Android OS update version.

Sam Mobile has it from its insiders that Samsung is currently testing build version JWR66N on the Galaxy S4 Google Play edition (model number GT-I9505G).

Now, if that particular Android 4.3 build number is familiar, that’s because a recent Myce report talked about two particular Android 4.3 versions – JWR66D and JWR53F – spotted in server logs running on the Nexus 7 and Nexus 4, but also “in the issue tracker of the Google Chromium project:”

In this case both build numbers (JWR66D and JWR53F) mean that they are Jellybean (‘J’) builds from the second quarter of this year (‘R’) and the final number is x-th day in the quarter, in this case 66 and 53. The final character remarks the build of the day, the D is the fourth build, the F is the sixth build of that day. What the ‘W’ means is so far unclear. This means both versions are from the end of May, beginning of June.
myce

That explanation seems to indicate that JWR66N is a newer Android 4.3 build, although we’re only speculating at this point.

Getting back to Sam Mobile’s report; while an actual release date for the update is not provided, the publication says the handset will get Android 4.3 in July. If that’s accurate, that means the official Android 4.3 update is days away – and we can’t but wonder whether that’s when new hardware will also be released.

Considering that Google will not update the Google Play edition handsets to new Android versions, as OEMs will have to do it themselves, it’ll certainly be interesting to see how fast the Galaxy S4 and HTC One with Nexus powers will get their Android 4.3 updates once the new OS version is official.

Speaking of the HTC One Google Play edition – boy, these product names are annoying – we would assume that HTC is also working on the respective Android 4.3 update for the device, assuming, again, that Sam Mobile’s info is accurate.

Update: Sam Mobile has returned with more information, including screenshots of Android 4.3 running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 version of the Galaxy S4 (GT-I9505), not the Google Play edition model (see gallery above).