Android 4.1.2, should you update?

Android 4.1.2, should you upgrade?

A few weeks ago, i updated 2 of my android devices, namely the LG P880 (aka 4X HD) and the Samsung Galaxy Note GT-N7000, both from ICS to Jelly Bean, 4.1.2. If you have already heard, many people complain about the LG update and I heard a lot on the internet not to update, but I did anyway. And here is what I think:
Although there are some crucial additions, don't update your phone.



Okay, so the reason why I wanted to update my P880 was because it started freezing right after answering the call, then I couldn't hear or talk, and the screen remains on and the phone starts heating like a Samsung, and the only thing I could do was remove the battery. Very not reliable and quite a pathetic situation that recently appeared which forced me to update from 4.0.3 to 4.1.2(latest for my phone). Here's the most details I can recall about the two phones for the course of 1.5 weeks.

UI

new Emoji letters reading, totally worth the update

It is definite that both the Samsung and the LG have each their own new look, which makes them both look a lot different than each other, and more like kitchen appliances, specifically an easy-to-use microwave for the LG and a metallic oven for the Samsung, or that's how i felt them to be. LG's Quickmemo and settings look like the new Nexus, and overall really helpful. NFC now has a toggle between LG tags and Android beam straight from the top bar, and both phones have the brightness as well there. Sadly the NFC now starts consuming slightly more battery than before, but its still much lower than all other NFC battery consumption for all other phones I have seen with NFC.

not all Emoji are supported, but something is better than nothing

A few very important features: the new notification bar feels like the first page of the news paper, as well as the Emoji (iPhone emotions/whatsapp) are partially supported in black and white)

Battery

The LG's battery started degrading, becoming like a Samsung, and the Samsung's one got even worse that it doesn't charge if you leave the screen on at lowest brightness! The LG one started getting tolerable soon, and quickly recovered after 5 days of the update, but still is nowhere as good as it was. I kind of regret upgrading. Things like "screen idle" and "screen brightness" and "android OS" were Samsung-only excuses for wasting battery, but now sometimes you can find them in an LG! However, Samsung's mistakes are getting even worse.

Wifi

Both phones now have a new feature: disconnecting automatically from wifi when too far or "limited connection" and connecting automatically. Best thing is that apps such as facebook no longer need a restart if the wifi was rebooted. Also, one might assume from this that the range gets shorter, but so far i didn't have real issues, in fact, i can still reach further than my iPhone.

Speed

image from here

One of the things is that I've recently been having 5MB of RAM free, so i updated, only to initially find 200MB free. Now i am improved thanks to a few apps I'll mention later, to around 450-400MB free on my average use. The Samsung still has 200MB free, but utilizes them better than before, and so does the LG. Overall, speed did improve, and if it  However when you start LG this may not be the case, and if you want to know why, then read on.

Home

Want this?

As there were improvements in GUI, there were changes to home, right? They aren't improvements, they are regressions! Well, the LG's home is what makes is so slow, its very laggy, and now it frequently goes not responding! I had to install Mobo live (an upgrade from pandahome, which doesn't support the old themes which I have mentioned before) to fix the issue, but really I miss the coloured folders and the themes LG had. It was so fascinating and my friend rooted her phone just to be able to use LG's distinctive home. Why did it come to this? Trust me, if you are desperate to update, try 4.0.4 instead, or if you have to, use a third party launcher. I would've recommended Go Launcher EX but now it has ads. Try checking the internet reviews for best launchers.

Phone

While I haven't really tried mobile data, of course I tried the phone. Voice quality dropped in both, which is still quite pathetic, but now, no matter how much laggy the phone was, it will magically become fast and not freeze after calling. Phew! Navigating through the phone app is a little slow though, and for the Samsung it isn't much of a significant difference.

Overall:
Don't update Don't update Don't update Don't update Don't update

While there are some improvements, overall you don't need it unless you were extremely short on RAM and wanted to utilize it more.
But don't worry, if you do, there is this extremely suspicious non-root method to downgrade and an extra shady method to upgrade from 4.0.3 to 4.0.4 (which I can't find, but it's German and on youtube and xda-developers forum) which has the fix of the bug I wanted (for the P880). And if you are reluctant to try something unsafe, there are always apps that make android better, such as android air, and Mobo live, and its task killer, as well many task killers on the app store that are not old. Don't try Antutu bench-marking if you don't want to be depressed.

This was all written because I was bored that the longingly awaited android 5 does not have any news yet. I might have more courage in the future to show you the major change to my texture pack, but probably I might not add them to the next update.
Play More Zelda!