Brace yourselves, Galaxy Note II owners, it looks like it’s time for that KitKat treat you’ve all been waiting for. A KitKat firmware for the international variant of the second-generation Note has shown up on Kies and is available in France, and while there’s no info on whether this is rolling out over the air just yet, it’s an official build and should soon be rolling out to other regions as well. It will bump the software version up to build number N7100XXUFND3, and should include all the goodies you expect from the newest version of Android.

These include a smoother interface and faster performance, white status bar icons, full-screen album art and a camera shortcut on the lock screen, wireless printing and NFC tap-to-pay support, options to set default messaging and launcher apps, transparent status bar, and better stability. Samsung’s own changes should be present as well, though we’ll know what those are only after we’ve updated our own devices to KitKat (which should take about 15 minutes from now.) are present as well – till now we’ve noticed the addition of Samsung Wallet and KNOX, though we’ll likely find more as we continue playing with KitKat on our Note II.

Have you received the update on your Galaxy Note II yet? Let us know in the comments, and be sure to check for the update in the Settings » About phone » Software update menu (you can also download the firmware from our firmware section and upgrade manually.)

Firmware details:

• Model: GT-N7100

GT-N7100 • Model name: GALAXY Note II

GALAXY Note II • Country: France

France • Version: Android 4.4.2

Android 4.4.2 • Changelist: 1280411

1280411 • Build date: Tue, 08 Apr 2014 17:52:29 +0000

Tue, 08 Apr 2014 17:52:29 +0000 • Product Code: XEF

XEF • PDA: N7100XXUFND3

N7100XXUFND3 • CSC: N7100OXAFND3

N7100OXAFND3 • MODEM: N7100XXUFND3

Screenshots:

