Samsung Galaxy S Finally Gets Froyo Update

Samsung UK has begun the rollout of the Android 2.2 (Froyo) mobile operating system to its flagship handset, the Galaxy S.

Samsung UK made the announcement via its official Twitter feed. “Froyo starts rolling out today; everyone will have it by the end of Nov. To prepare, get the latest version of Kies.” it said.

Kies is Samsung’s proprietary upgrading solution which is needed to update the handset’s software.

Long wait for UK users

The Samsung Galaxy S was officially launched in the UK back in July, although it was launched earlier in other parts of the world. The company revealed in August that it had shipped one million handsets around the world. This was on top of the one million handsets it had already sold in the US. By the end of the year, it predicts it will have shipped 20 million Galaxy S handsets in total.

The 4-inch smartphone comes with a 1GHz processor, 512MB RAM, a 5-megapixel camera, and is available on two year contracts for as little as £25 per month.

Froyo was actually available on Google’s Nexus One from June this year. However, frustration was to follow for UK users, as the Samsung Galaxy S did not receive the much anticipated Android 2.2 operating system upgrade, despite it being rolled out to a number of competitor handsets, most notably the Motorola Droid X.

To make matters even more painful for UK users, it was revealed that on 18 October Samsung Galaxy S users in the United States had begun to receive the Froyo upgrade.

Froyo Features

Many users were keen to get their hands on Android 2.2 because of the improvements it offers. This includes much faster performance thanks to a JIT compiler. It also features a voice-controlled GPS through Google Maps Navigation and supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1.

In addition it offers greater enterprise functionality thanks to enhanced support for Microsoft Exchange, as well as the ability to search Google, Translate, Wikipedia and Dictionary within the browser.

Another hot feature is the ability to turn the phone into a wireless hotspot and save apps to a memory card.