Just bought a Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 in the PB tech sale. Its the GT-P5110 wifi model, first thing I did after turning it on and charging it was check for any updates. It had none. The stock android 4.04 is not too bad but I had expected there would be a jellybean firmware for it by now. I have done some checking and see that 4.1.2 has been released for many countries now, but just not NZ. Anyone know if/when it could be coming? This has to pass the WAF so cyanogenmod and custom firmwares is not an option. Anyone flashed an overseas 4.1.2 with any success? This is my first Samsung, so not sure what is the best course of action.
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I updated to the Netherlands 4.1.2 a few weeks ago, only problem I've got is that in pop mail it won't ever clear the emails, I delete them all and then within an hour or so they are all back again.
Cleared cache, data, etc, but still hasn't made any difference, apart from that it's fine.
Like you I was stuck on 4.04, so manually updated to 4.1.1 a while back, then 4.1.2 recently.
There's virtually no difference between the 4.xx firmware versions from a usability perspective. Unless you have a burning need for it, then I'd just wait until the update turns up.
stevenz: There's virtually no difference between the 4.xx firmware versions from a usability perspective. Unless you have a burning need for it, then I'd just wait until the update turns up.
There's a rather large difference between 4.0 and 4.1 and the 4.1.2 firmware from experience is more polished than the 4.1.1 versions.
stevenz: There's virtually no difference between the 4.xx firmware versions from a usability perspective. Unless you have a burning need for it, then I'd just wait until the update turns up.
There's a rather large difference between 4.0 and 4.1 and the 4.1.2 firmware from experience is more polished than the 4.1.1 versions.
Looks the same to me other than being slightly smoother ("project butter") in some cases for v4.1.
Plus some camera improvements, but I'd hope people wouldn't be using a tablet as a serious camera.
Was more after the buttery goodness. 4.04 it shipped with is not the paragon of smoothness I had hoped for. It is not bad enough to warrant pushing overseas firmwares via odin or going the full hog and flashing cyanogenmod or similar. Just going to leave it for now and hope samsung NZ pull their fingers out and release updates for this region.
Oh well, off to take sepia pictures of nature for instagram with my tablet in the garden.
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I updated my Galaxy Tab 2 (GT-P5110) to the Netherlands 4.1.2 official ROM yesterday and it definitely feels a lot smoother on the home screens and I noticed that animations were smoother in some games as well. It was a very easy upgrade and I was surprised that I didn't lose any of my app data, so whilst I had done a backup of it, I didn't need to restore it.
Haven't found any issues, although it is early days. I downloaded a copy of the original ROM first in case I needed to revert back, but looks like I won't need it.
Fair enough if you want to wait for it to come out officially in NZ, but I gave up waiting. Just thought I would give you my experience in case you are still thinking about updating manually.
Sounds good and looks like it would be clean a clean enough upgrade to get by the wife without her noticing I am messing with our new tablet! Like that it retained data. Would you mind posting a link to instructions or a quick walkthrough for what you had to do?
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D'oh. Wrote a long post and had been timed out when I submitted. :( I'll start again... In notepad this time.
Yeah the interface looks near identical so you'll probably get away with it. ;) The on screen keyboard looks a bit different (better) though.
Whilst I didn't need to use my backup, I would still recommend doing one unless your tablet is new enough that you aren't worried about losing app data. I used Helium (formerly known as Carbon). http://www.clockworkmod.com/carbon You need to download the app on the tablet and then also download an application for your PC at the link above. You don't need the drivers if you install Samsung Kies instead (which is what I did). Same applies for upgrade itself (with regards to the drivers).
I looked at a whole bunch of different install instructions, but found this one to be the most useful: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/479490/20130617/galaxy-tab2-gtp5110-android412-xxdma2-jellybean-update.htm
It mentions upgrading to a different region than I used, but it is the same process. I recommend you download the original firmware (in case you need to go back for any reason) as well as the new one. I used this one: http://live.samsung-updates.com/details/11655/Galaxy_Tab_2_10.1_WiFi/GT-P5110/PHN/P5110XXDMF1.html You just need the "Stock Firmware" and not the "Kernel File".
The only things I found to be different than described in the instructions above were:
* To boot into download mode I had to power on by holding Power + Volume Up, rather than Power + Volume Down (which booted into recovery mode, which isn't what you want). * When Odin 3.07 recognised my device it lit up blue rather than yellow. I checked this out and it's just a difference in versions of Odin. * For step 7 of the instructions, you only need to specify step (a) - it does say this may be the case, but just confirming for you.
Once my tablet booted up on the new firmware it asked if I wanted to restore apps from Google. I said yes and after 20 minutes of a spinning circle (always a bad progress bar) which didn't look like it was doing much I changed my mind and cancelled. Then I found all my apps and their data were there, so I would probably just say no to this step as you can always run it manually later if you need to.
Don't forget to have a well charged battery and to turn on USB debugging as specified in the prerequisites.
If you have any questions, just let me know before proceeding and I'll try and help.
Finally did it this weekend, flashed the XXDMA2 worldwide 4.1.2 firmware. What a difference. It is so much smoother and faster as well as having picked up some of the Samsung tweaks like smartstay. Wifi performance is much better as it doesn't seem to micro drop the wifi connection like it did on ICS. I got a bit excited after the upgrade and flashed CWM. Wish I had not gone that far. I really don't like the 4.2+ tablet UI and now I have increased my flash counter. Oh well, problem for another day.
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That's good you found it smoother and faster, just as I did. I see there is an official 4.2.2 version just released for Australia: http://live.samsung-updates.com/index.php?device=GT-P5110
I am inclined to give it a go, though I have no complaints with how my Tab 2 is running now, so maybe I should just leave it.
What is it about the UI in particular that you don't like?
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