Last week, the Google Play edition HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 started receiving the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update. While the Jelly Bean version for these devices is very much stock, there are still a lot of differences compared to the Android 4.3 seen on the Nexus 4 and other Nexus devices.
Below is a small list of changes that are present in the HTC One and Galaxy S4 Google Play edition ROMs compared to stock Android on Nexus 4 or even their previous Android 4.2.2 based builds -:
The Android 4.3 update for the HTC One does not have underlying Sense framework as seen on the Android 4.2.2 ROM. The only Sense framework files that are present are for the IR blaster to work. The Beats Audio toggle is still present on the HTC One.
The audio quality from the stereo speakers and earphones on the One has greatly improved compared to the stock Android 4.2.2 ROM. Fraunhofer virtual surround sound as seen on the Nexus 7 is also present on the HTC One. IR Blaster works on the Galaxy S4 and HTC One. The dark Holo background, instead of the default blue, as seen on the Android 4.2 GPe ROM for the Galaxy S4 has been removed. The stock Holo background is once again back. The vibration intensity on the One has been reduced.
The Security settings option is Force Closing on the Galaxy S4 (I9505G) edition. The HTC One does not suffer from any such issues. (Thanks @TeamAndIRC!) There is a noticeable performance improvement in both the devices. I have never seen a device running Android as smoothly as the HTC One runs the near-stock Android 4.3 build. The size of icons have been increased on the stock launcher. A new baseband and modem is included with the update for the Galaxy S4 and One The Android 4.3 builds for the One and Galaxy S4 are more-stock like compared to the Android 4.2.2 builds The One’s camera performance is still brilliant in low-light. However, the lack of Sense camera and Gallery app do take out the fun in clicking pictures from it. There is a new open-source Bluetooth stack on the HTC One
Charging improvements on the HTC One. Updated recovery mode with larger font and a black background on the One.
Apart from the above mentioned changes, all the features that Google introduced in Android 4.3 for the Nexus devices like dialer auto-complete and OpenGL 3.0 are also present. You can find the full feature list of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean here.
