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A new update for the Galaxy S4 that reportedly begins rolling out today will let users install apps to their microSD card. Samsung was heavily criticised when it quickly emerged you couldn’t do that on its latest superphone, and left users with only 8.5GB of usuable space.
The update is beginning to be rolled out today in Germany, according to Samsung gossip site SamMobile, and will be available via the Kies PC software or over the air.
“Samsung UK will announce software updates for the Galaxy S4 in due course,” a company spokesperson told me.
As well as letting you move apps to external memory, the update slightly increases the amount of available storage, to 9.2GB. The move dramatically expands the amount of space you have to store the latest big-name games, for example, many of which can take up over 1GB once you’ve downloaded all the assets.
The update brings several other tweaks too, including the ability to record high dynamic range video, new camera firmware, a toggle for the Smart Pause feature, and interface tweaks such as a semi-transparent status bar and some new icons in settings.
Samsung has previously defended the S4’s meagre memory as being a result of its “more powerful features”, Samsung quickly backed down over the issue when faced with the full might of the BBC’s Watchdog TV show.
A new version of the S4 with a plain version of Google’s Android software is planned, but it hasn’t yet been revealed how much free space that model will have.
What do you think of Samsung’s response? Is it good enough? Should it free up even more space? There’s all the room you need down in the comments, or over on our spacious Facebook page.
Update 7 June: Added comment from Samsung.
