2012 nexus 7 updates to kitkat

My 2012 Nexus 7, which is barely a year old, updated over-the-air to Android 4.4 yesterday. This occurred after a long home commute across Orlando through some fairly heavy (and welcome) rain. When I finally plopped down in my La-Z-Boy and reached for my tablet, I was greeted with a notification that the full upgrade had downloaded to the tablet and the tablet was ready to reboot and install Android 4.4.

It took around 30 minutes for the installation to finish, but when it was done the Nexus 7 actually looked a bit better and was better behaved than it had been when I first bought it back in October of last year.

My tablet, which has been discontinued and replaced by the 2013 version of the Nexus 7, has been faithfully upgraded by Google over the past year. The 2012 Nexus 7 first shipped with Jelly Bean, Android 4.1. Since that time my Nexus 7 has been upgraded with every successive release of Jelly Bean. Over the year I've owned it my 7 has been the best value for a tablet I've ever owned.

I was pleasantly surprised when KitKat landed on my 2012 Nexus 7; I wasn't expecting that to happen as it has been discontinued. I'm sure that the 2013 Nexus 7, with more advanced hardware, is a better, faster tablet. But the 2012 version is still doing quite well, and if anything, KitKat has added new value to this "old" hardware. I don't know if I'll get the 2013 version, but I'll probably get the 2014 version, if and when it's announced.

It also illustrates why I won't buy another handset from Samsung. I currently own the Galaxy S4, which has the older Jelly Bean, Android Version 4.2.2. Keep in mind that Jelly Bean spans three simi-major releases from 4.1 to 4.3. The only time I've seen Samsung upgrade Jelly Bean was a minor point release from 4.2 to 4.2.2. Samsung was supposed to release their version of 4.3 on 20 November to support their Galaxy Gear watch, an item I have absolutely no desire to purchase anyway. The upgrade has been stopped on AT&T due to issues with Samsung's version of Android 4.3.

In spite of the fact I've only had my Galaxy S4 not quite three months, I'm seriously contemplating purchasing the Nexus 5 and putting my AT&T SIM card in the Nexus 5 and selling my S4. The Galaxy S4 hardware is excellent, but the software support is atrocious. I'd rather have native Google hardware than anyone else's if that's what it takes to get reliable Android updates when they're released.

The only other vendor with this kind of service is Apple. And if I had to make a recommendation, it would be between the Apple iPhone and the Google Nexus line.