Vodafone treats Galaxy S2 owners to a Jelly Bean update

Vodafone Australia will start pushing a Jelly Bean update to its customers using the Samsung Galaxy S2.

The update will bring the handset up to version 4.1.2 -- in line with more recent Samsung phones like the Galaxy S3 and the Note 2.

Vodafone doesn't provide a change log in its blog post on the update, but there are a few key enhancements which can be expected with the Jelly Bean version of the Android OS

Feels shiny and new

• Google Now - focusing on searching before you ask it to, Google Now delivers information based on your user profile and previous search history. If you tell it where you live and work, Now can have a navigation route planned for you each day, for example.

• Detailed notifications - one of the more obvious improvements will be the expanded notifications in the pull-down notifications curtain. You can read the first line of an email, for one, and reply to it directly from the notification.

• Faster UI - thanks to Google's Project Butter enhancements, Galaxy S2 users should feel like their phone runs a bit smoother and is more responsive to touch.

That this upgrade officially exists is a testament to the popularity of the Galaxy S2; a phone that was launched originally on the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) platform, and has been updated several times before this latest patch.