[Update: Or not] You can supposedly get Lollipop on almost any US Samsung Galaxy S5 right now by heading to Best Buy
[Note]: We’re still trying to verify that this is actually true and will update this post with anything we hear. In the meantime you might want to call your local Best Buy to see if they’ve heard anything about being able to get Android 5.0 Lollipop loaded onto your phone before heading in.
For what it’s worth we’re hearing a lot of reports to the contrary, so you shouldn’t zoom out of the door right away. As amazing as it would be to leapfrog the carriers, it’s still currently the only known route to getting an official Lollipop upgrade for your Samsung Galaxy S5.
While Sprint and Verizon may already be dishing out the Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy S5 over the air, there are many more variants available in the United States that haven’t received it yet. Thankfully there might be a way for those folks to get it sooner than you think.
A supposed Samsung Experience Shop rep posted to Reddit with details on how to get your phone upgraded to the latest version of Android. They claim you can ask a rep to flash the firmware to your Samsung Galaxy S5 even if it hasn’t started pushing out via the carrier themselves. There are a couple of caveats:
- Samsung Experience Shops are only found at Best Buy, and not all Best Buys at that. Be sure to confirm your local Best Buy has a Samsung Experience Shop before heading in.
- The rep notes that while almost all US carriers — even the small guys like MetroPCS and Boost — are capable of getting the update, T-Mobile is not. This is due to Best Buy not having a relationship with T-Mobile outside of selling prepaid phones.
- Your phone can’t be rooted and it must be on the latest official firmware. The update will fail to apply otherwise.
This is a great alternative to potentially waiting weeks for an upgrade, or flashing a custom ROM and potentially having something go wrong. If something does go wrong, well, there’s an expert right there that will get things right.
The other positive to note is that this apparently installs Samsung’s firmware in its purest form. The rep noted that when carriers roll out software upgrades, Samsung is likely to have had the firmware ready at least a week or more. The carriers’ delays are mostly due to testing and customizing the firmware (see: adding bloatware).
So there you have it — if you aren’t on Lollipop yet then it might be worth a trip to your local Samsung Experience Shop at Best Buy today to see if you can change that.