Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos has been a huge success for the brand because of its Note 2 like look and feel as well as interesting features at the budget price. The phone was release long back in December 2012 featuring a 5 inch TFT LCD display and other hardware specifications like its 1.2 GHz dual core processor with 1 GB RAM and runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS. Apart from this it has 8 GB internal storage and a supportive external storage Micro SD expandable to the limit of 64 GB. The screen resolution is 480 x 800 pixel and PPI of 187. Going towards the camera, the rear camera is of 8 MP and front camera of 2MP which suffice our need.
These features are quite large to meet the requirement of an average consumer for a mobile. The drawback that can be brought to your notice is the lack of future software upgradation. Although its been over a year, Galaxy Grand Duos is still running on Android 4.2.1 Jellybean and there doesn’t seems any sign of OTA firmware updates in near future because Samsung seems quite busy with updates for Note 3, S4, Note 2 and S3. And as we know Android has now reached upto version 4.2.2 Kitkat. Several devices already received the Kitkat update and many are scheduled, except Galaxy Grand Duos and others. But it can be sorted out by manually installing custom ROM based on Kitkat 4.4. I’m talking about Cyanogenmod 11 which is most stable ROM for your Galaxy Grand Duos based on Android 4.4 Kitkat.
So, if you are using this phone and want to taste out Kitkat OS, just go through the files and process provided in this guide. But before that, lets have these important Prequisites and some important instructions and risk.
Pre-Requirements:
- As i said above, your data will be erased while performing this process, you should get the complete Backup of your important files and data before starting the process. You can do it manually or can use any application. There are many backup applications available for free on Google Play
- Charge up the phone’s battery upto 60% as it should not get drained out during the process.
- Make sure your Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos is already Rooted and have CWM recovery installed. If not, you can do it using this Guide: Rooting Galaxy Grand Duos – Easiest Method
- Enable USB Debugging by going to Phone’s Settings > Developer Options.
- Download Galaxy Grand Duos USB Drivers and install it on your Computer
- Download Cyanogenmod 11 Kitkat ROM and save it on your desktop
- Download Google Apps from above link and save it on your desktop too.
Warnings:
- Rooting and installing Custom ROMs is too risky if not done properly, so do this on your own Risk.
- Samsung, Me or this website will nowhere be responsible for any damage caused to the device and no firmware updates will be received while rooting the phone.
- Warranty will become void once the rooting is done.
- During the rooting the device there are chances of data getting erased available in the device.
Installating Kitkat on Galaxy Grand Duos:
- First of all you need to transfer the downloaded ROM Package and Google Apps files to (dont extract) to your phone’s SD Card. Make sure to copy the files in Root of the SD Card so that it can be excessed easily while in recovery mode.
- Now unplug the USB cable and shutdown the phone.
- Once it is completely turned off, press and hold Volume Down + Power button + Home key together for 10 to 15 seconds to boot the phone in Recovery Mode.
- Now use Volume rockers to scroll up and down, select Wipe Data/factory reset.
- Now select Wipe Cache Partition
- And now click Advance option at the bottom of main recovery screen and then select Wipe Dalvik cache
- Now come back to the Main Recovery Screen and select “Install ZIP From SD Card”. Browse and select the Download ROM package
- This will start installing the new Custom ROM and will take few minutes. Keep patience and let it do comfortably.
- Once done, repeat the process and select/Install Google Apps Package.
- Now the Google Apps kit will be installed on your Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos.
- Once it is installed, go back to the Main Recovery display and select the first option, “Reboot System Now” option.
That’s it. The new Android 4.4 Kitkat based custom ROM is now successfully installed on your Galaxy Grand Duos. As this is the first boot with new ROM, your device may take bit longer time to boot. So don’t panic. Once it is booted completely, perform the required settings and configuration. And, of course, enjoy the new Kitkat Operating system on your Grand Duos with all Kitkat features.
There are also two more Custom ROMs available for Galaxy Grand Duos that offer you the latest version, Android 4.4.2 Kitkat. Particularly, i’m talking about ParanoidAndroid Kitkat 4.4.2 and Slimkat Kitkat 4.4.2. You can download these Roms from the same link which i have provided above. While Flashing the same, you dont need to do anything extra. Just follow the same steps above but change the Rom file accordingly.
