Samsung Galaxy S4 Exynos 5 Octa Root Announcement May Have Been Premature

Remember when we said developers have been able to root the Exynos 5 Octa version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 even before its release? Not so fast.

Samsung developer and root expert Chainfire took issue with the claim on Google+.

"All instances I can find point back to modified ROMs posted on XDA have the apk and su binary for Superuser or SuperSU pre-installed, but that nobody has tested," Chainfire wrote.

"I would like to point out that we've tried this trick with the I9505 weeks ago (and we actually tested it on a real device), and this time around, it is not a simple case of injecting the files. There is some further protection in the firmware that prevents the su binary (which is needed for root access) from functioning properly -- without any known workaround at this time."

Chainfire noted that the root claim is for the I9500, not the I9505 but speculated that the Exynos5 Octa version of the Galaxy S4 would have the same protections as the Snapdragon version.

Of course, it may all be a moot point in the United States, since we're only getting the I9505, at least at first. A root for the Snapdragon-powered S4 is likely to be released shortly after the phone itself, so no one should have to wait much longer.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 features a 1.6GHz eight-core Exynos 5 Octa processor or a 1.9GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor (depending on country), 2GB of RAM, a 5-inch 1920x1080 Full HD AMOLED display at 441 ppi, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera with 1080p HD video, a 2-megapixel front facing camera, internal storage between 16 and 64GB, an SD card slot that can accommodate an additional 64GB, a polycarbonate body, Smart Pause and floating touch tech and runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.

Check back for the latest info on the Galaxy S4 as it becomes available.