The Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 launched with Android 4.1.2, and given the tablet's budget pricing, we weren't expecting it to get any major software updates, except for maybe an update to Android 4.2. Well, Samsung has decided to give us a nice surprise after months of silence on whether the Tab 3 7.0 would ever be updated – the Korean manufacturer is now updating the tablet directly to Android 4.4.2 KitKat, with the update currently rolling out to the model on carrier Sprint in the US (SM-T217S), carrying build number T217SVPUBNE7. That's a pretty major bump in software for one of the cheapest Samsung tablets, and should make owners of the device pretty happy.
The update brings the usual KitKat goodies, including faster performance, white status bar icons, wireless printing support over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, advanced location control, full-screen album art and a camera shortcut on the lockscreen, expanded emojis, and more. There's no telling when the international variant of the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 will start getting the update, though we will be sure to let you know once it does. In the meantime, if you own the Sprint variant, be sure to do a manual check in the Settings » About tablet » Software updates menu in case you're unwilling to wait for the update to automatically show up, which it should in the next couple of days.
Update: We realized after publishing this article that the international variant might not get updated to KitKat, as it only sports 1GB of RAM as opposed to 1.5GB on the Sprint variant. However, we're saying that based on the fact that Galaxy S III is not getting updated because of RAM limitations, but since the Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 doesn't have as many software features as the Galaxy S III (and other Samsung flagships do), Samsung might be able to fit in TouchWiz on the 1GB of available RAM (out of which 833MB is actually usable on the Tab 3 7.0.)
