The Galaxy S3 Mini can be updated to 4.3 Jelly Bean through a CyanogenMod Rom

If you own a Samsung Galaxy S4 or even S3, chances are you’re already rocking Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, as the company has been busy pushing firmware updates all month. For Galaxy S3 Mini owners, however, the fates have not been as kind. Not only will the S3 Mini likely never get an official 4.3 Jelly Bean update, but it will be due to compatibility issues with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI -- of all things.

Luckily, the CyanogenMod team has you covered, with a CM10.2 Jelly Bean ROM sans TouchWiz that is perfectly compatible with the S3 Mini. Some of the upgrades included with CM10.2 include: 2D/3D hardware acceleration, native tethering, support for 64GB SD cards, improved wireless connectivity and better sensor functionality.

As always, DroidReport assumes no liability for the firmware installation. Proceed with caution.

Before Getting Started

Before you get started, ensure that your Galaxy S3 Mini (I8910, I8190L and I8190N models) is factory unlocked and rooted. You must also have ClockworkMod installed.

As always, you want to backup your device and charge it to at least 80 percent.

Finally, enable USB Debugging mode by navigating to Settings -> Developer Options.

Updating Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini (I8910, I8190L and I8190N models) to Android Jelly Bean 4.3 via CM10.2

1) Download the Android 4.3 CM10.2 Build, as well as the Google Apps package.

2) Using your USB cable, connect your Galaxy S3 Mini to your computer.

3) Copy CM10.2 and the Google Apps package to the root folder of your handset’s SD card.

4) Boot your phone into recovery mode by pressing the Volume Up and Home buttons while simultaneously tapping the Power button until an icon of a green robot appears.

5) Open CWM recovery and perform the following steps: wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache partition, wipe dalvik cache and system format.

6) From CMW recovery, navigate to Install Zip from SD card and choose the room extracted from the CM10.2 .zip archive.

7) Your device will now begin installing the firmware, which should take approximately 5 minutes. Do nothing until the process is complete.

8) Select Reboot System Now when the option appears. Your Galaxy S3 Mini will reboot and you’ll officially be running Android 4.3 CM10.2. Kudos.