Should I upgrade my new Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 to Kitkat?

[Lindsay19]

Apologies for placing this in the wrong part of the forum initially.

I'm so pleased I found this forum, I've been reading extensively and you have all helped me iron out some queries relating to my first tablet purchase. I have ordered a Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 and it will be arriving today (UK). I know nothing about tablets, I have never even used one, but hopefully the tablet will make my working life a little easier.

During the course of my research it seems that owners of this tablet have been looking forward to the 4.4.2 upgrade which apparently alleviates some of the performance lag which has also been noted by some people. However I am concerned to also read reports that this upgrade can cause poor battery performance - a feature which is important to me. I would therefore be very grateful if people who've upgraded could share their experiences, because I don't know whether to do this upgrade or not once the tablet has arrived. Maybe I should just stick with whatever version of Android is pre-installed.

If you have any other tips on how to set up this tablet from new (for a beginner) I would be very grateful. I don't think I will be going overboard on apps but I will definitely need to install a voice recognition facility (I currently use Dragon on my desktop PC) because I have difficulty typing (RSI).

Kind regards
Lindsay

 

[Lindsay19]

Found a potential fault already with battery charging - will start a separate thread for that.

- Now resolved (it appeared I had been given poor advice from Samsung tech dept).

 

[Bosbouer]

4.4.2 has been out for quite some time and has received minor updates. I would advise that you do the upadte. As for the voice use you may need to use S voice and download an UK voice pack. As with Dragon there is a learning (for the note not you) curve where you dictate and correct

 

[Lindsay19]

I was wondering if some of the battery problems experienced by those who upgraded to Kitkat might have been the early adopters who did a manual install using software which maybe wasn't for their country. I can't think why it would cause battery drain, unless the speed enhancements drew a lot of extra juice.

 

[Bosbouer]

I was wondering if some of the battery problems experienced by those who upgraded to Kitkat might have been the early adopters who did a manual install using software which maybe wasn't for their country. I can't think why it would cause battery drain, unless the speed enhancements drew a lot of extra juice.

Nope. I had updated from the South African 4.3 which was what the note came out with here to the UK 4.4.2 well before it became available here and experienced no battery issues. I make a point of shutting the note down after an OS upgrade. Presently I am using the Nordic version of 4.4.2 because the South African version does not offer multiuser accounts.

 

[Lindsay19]

I make a point of shutting the note down after an OS upgrade.
.

That's interesting - what does it do?

 

[Bosbouer]

Just to make sure android cleans its cache of all the bits and pieces of old data accumalated during use. Closest you get to a registry cleaner on a Windows pc.

Spikes

 

[Lindsay19]

Well, it did the update automatically without asking me, so I haven't had an opportunity to compare previous performance with the current update. Everything seems okay, but I've noticed on my website the slideshow on the Homepage is very juddery, and YouTube videos are quite poor. Is this normal for a tablet ( I have a strong Wi-Fi connection at home)?

 

[Bosbouer]

to stop the automatic update see the attached.

Did you restart after the update?

 

[Lindsay19]

I can't remember if I did the restart after the update, I may have forgotten.

EDIT: on reflection, I did a bit of configuring after the update and then I turned it off for about an hour whilst I went and did something else. I'm not sure if that would count as being relevant to the reboot?

 

[Traylaw]

I, like many have been running the current update for some time, no problems with ytube or any video streaming, battery life is no different then previous version.... However I am not running Samsung's UI but Nova Launcher. Running minimum widgets, turn off as many blot wear apps as possible, turned off all notifications (except mail) and auto updates, turned off Samsung push services. My wife has the note 10.1 2014 and I have a note 12.2 both are going well.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Lindsay19]

Thank you Traylaw - I will definitely look at the Nova Launcher. I've no idea why Youtube is so ghastly, whereas BBC I player runs beautifully.

 

[Dale_M]

Are you trying to run Youtube videos through a "Youtube app" or through a standard browser (Chrome or Firefox, or...)

I found that Youtube apps and Facebook apps are not as good as going though a browser like Chrome... But maybe that is just me...

Dale

 

[Lindsay19]

Through Chrome.

I agree with you on the apps - I don't like the Facebook one.

 

[Lindsay19]

Well, I have just tried running YouTube through the app (rather than through my browser like I would on my desktop PC) and the quality is vastly better - no more fuzziness or blockiness. I can't think why the videos look so bad when I access Youtube through the (Chrome) browser.