Samsung kicks off Galaxy S III Android Jelly Bean update in Europe

If you’re a Samsung Galaxy S III owner in Poland, you’ll be among the first to receive the official update to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.

For everyone else in the world, Samsung’s announcement today that it is rolling out the Jelly Bean update to its flagship phone is the beginning of a long wait. It’s still up to carriers to release the Jelly Bean update, which means many Galaxy S III owners outside of Poland will likely be waiting several weeks for the update (and perhaps even months).

Jelly Bean is the latest version of Google’s mobile OS, and it includes Google Now, a bold Siri-like voice search feature that can also learn your habits, as well as a number of design improvements. Google named the design initiative behind Jelly Bean “Project Butter,” because it makes just about everything you do on Android seem buttery smooth.

In addition to the improvements in Jelly Bean, Samsung naturally added some features of its own: Now you can change the size of the Pop Up Play video window (a useful feature that lets you watch video on top of any app), and a new Easy Mode for arranging widgets on the home screen.

If you’ve been holding out on getting a new Android phone, the Galaxy S III is still one of your best options. And once it gets the Jelly Bean update, it’ll be an even more tempting upgrade.

Samsung also announced a list of 10 phones that’ll be receiving the Jelly Bean update, including the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, and Galaxy Beam. Samsung’s four most recent tablets will also get the update, including the Galaxy Note 10.1 and the latest 7-inch and 10-inch Galaxy Tab models.