Yesterday we published an article pointing towards what looked like a sketchy collection of screenshots supposedly showing Android 6.0 running on the Galaxy Note 4. Samsung hasn’t yet pushed the update officially, and given the fact that the images were just screenshots, it was very difficult to confirm their authenticity.
Today, the same person who originally took those screenshots is back with a hands-on video showing the software up and running on last year’s flagship phablet. From the video alone, and its distinct lack of production values, it certainly seems like the real deal. Although, as the video-maker suggests, we think that this is an early pre-release version of software which was accidentally pushed to the user’s device.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaX7j5zMiGE]
Apart from the obvious fact that no one else seems to have the update (as far as we know), there are a couple of indications that this isn’t the final, polished version of Marshmallow which will eventually make its way to all Note 4’s. Perhaps the biggest indicator is that performance is severely hampered. At many times during the video, the phone is stuck showing a blank screen for a few seconds, and there are noticeable instances where animations aren’t at all smooth.
As we noted yesterday, the new software — when released officially — will have a couple of new user interface tweaks. Most notably, the Note 4’s S-Pen feature list will be upgraded to include a number of the Note 5‘s tricks. Those include the new Air Command menu, and the ability to scribble notes on the phone’s screen when it’s locked and in standby. On a more minor note, the settings ‘About Phone’ menu will include information indicating how up to date the phone’s security is.
