JiaYu reveal new software partner and release Android 5.1 for the JiaYu S3

Got a JiaYu S3 (3GB + 16GB)? Then you will most certainly want to head over to the JiaYu forums and download the official Android 5.1 update!

JiaYu released the JiaYu S3 at the beginning of the year. The device was one of the first to use a 64bit Mediatek octacore MT6752 chipset, and came with all the usual great hardware we have come to expect from high-end JiaYu phones.

Since releasing the 5.5-inch S3, JiaYu have been a little quiet, but today has been quite an eye opener for anyone following the Chinese phone maker. Along with news of the JiaYu S4, and a mystery $30 phone, JiaYu have also officially released and official Android 5.1 ROM for their flagship. The new ROM is a final build and only added to the JiaYu forums yesterday (17th September).

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Updating your JiaYu S3 means downloading the system and performing a manual update, but everything you need to do so has been provided on the JiaYu forums.

The update brings optimizations to the following;

Fixes to minimum screen brightness.
Optimizations to the front and rear cameras.
Fixed issues with SIM card recognition.
Optimized battery indicator.
New smart wake menu.
Improved audio.
Improvement to NFC.
Removed some junk applications.
Better language support.

JiaYu also announced today that they have a new ROM partner who will work on upcoming JiaYu phones. TF Android Developers have signed a cooperation with JiaYu to bring updates and ROMs to JiaYu phones. What they have planned (more stock ROMS or a custom ROM?) we aren’t sure, but to see JiaYu taking development seriously is a great sign.

Disclaimer: We may be compensated by some of the companies whose products we talk about, but our articles and reviews are always our honest opinions. For more details, you can check out our editorial guidelines and learn about how we use affiliate links.

About the author

Andi

Burs
September 18, 2015
Again, no word for other models? There was even mentioning about CM some time ago. I guess I’ll have to rely on the rest of the community, like XDA and NeedRom. Then maybe I could get rid off my Jiayu more easily.
- Hernán Castañón
  September 18, 2015
  Hi! I´m the software engineer for the future releases for Jiayu. We will update as much devices as we can, always Jiayu give us the device and them data. And well, you can move over XDA, but just to inform, I am actually RD/RC there, and will post the versions there too.
  - Natsumi
    September 18, 2015
    Se podrá customizar al SO desde cero? todos los móviles vienen con software y apps que nuca consigo instalar. Quiero una personalización total.
    - Hernán Castañón
      September 18, 2015
      Sí, los features disponibles en el SO son todos adaptados al sistema internamente, y podrás elegir si activarlos o no activarlos.
      Nada de apks de terceros, ni bloatware, o funcionalidades sin terminar.
      - Burs
        September 18, 2015
        Encantado de oír eso. Podemos esperar que las versiones para otros modelos de este año ya? Me gustaría saber los planes para el año pasado Jiayu S2, ya que sería genial tener Android 5.1 o CM instalado.
        
        Hernán Castañón
        September 18, 2015
        Bueno, nosotros nuestras ultimas compilaciones han sido hechas para el Jaiyu S3, ya que ha sido el terminal que nos cedieron hace ya algunos meses, pero ya hemos hablado con ellos de que nos gustaría soportar cuantos más dispositivos mejor. Creemos que nuestra compilación es suficientemente estable al igual que creemos que va a ser algo que los usuarios disfruten, y queremos discriminar cuantos menos terminales mejor.
        Mankiw
        September 19, 2015
        Hernán te quería preguntar, ¿Sabes si van a lanzar finalmente el modelo que anunció Andi? Enlace:https://www.gizchina.com/2015/09/03/breaking-new-jiayu-phone-in-the-works-a-balance-of-performance-and-price/
        En los comentarios comentó que sería de 5.5 pulgadas y con procesador Mediatek MT6753. La gente habla de potencia y más potencia, me quedo con un buen grupo de developers que mantengan actualizado el móvil, el software es más importante que el hardware. Si no sacan nada échale un vistazo al próximo Blackview BV9000 que va a estar muy enfocado a desarroladores como vosotros. Un saludo ;-).

Koen De Croo
September 18, 2015
a bit of help with downloading the right one, would be appreciated 🙂
Kieran olsson
September 18, 2015
Awesome!! TF i have used for years, their work is top notch, and they prefer stock android!! Gonna be great!
Horse7
September 18, 2015
How do we see the English instructions?

Pavlushka
September 18, 2015
Taking development seriously would mean to create own dev department, not to hire externals.
- Hernán Castañón
  September 18, 2015
  Taking developers in your own department means a lot of money to spend. Anyway, in this external team we are very coordinated between us which is like having your own department in an office. Expect a really lovely and featured 5.1.1 build for your Jiayu soon.
  - Marco Lancaster
    September 18, 2015
    It actually came! made by Superdragonpt and DerTeufel1980 two xda devs working in partnership with Jiayu Deuschtland. Running it right now, is damn smooth, however its a bet and front camera is pinkish, but they are working on it.
    - Hernán Castañón
      September 18, 2015
      We know there was one out, it’s the base of this article.
      Actually I’m one of the developers of TF Android, the official developers team for global,which you can see in this article.
      I am also a XDA developer as superdragonpt and DerTeufel1980. Them build is amazing and works like a charm, but our build also flies. Not gaining credit, but we have been working so hard in our modded OS just to get everything running incredible.
      - Marco Lancaster
        September 18, 2015
        No problem! It’s like the old saying the more, the better. S3 is a pretty good phone, but still lacks a stable build with the remaining bugs fixed. And after the stability get reached it also have a lot of potential to get another Custom Roms.
  - Allanitomwesh
    September 18, 2015
    The question I have,if you really are working on JiaYu’s,is how long as external devs will you support a phone? 1 year? 2 years? One Android version?
    - Hernán Castañón
      September 18, 2015
      Well, I joined the team very very late, but as far as I know they have being sharing builds for really long time.
      Coming from myself, as much time I have the device functional I will plain to release builds.
      - King
        September 19, 2015
        Nice to know. However, looks like the understanding is valid from 1 September 2015 to 31 December 2015. What happens after 4 months? Hope you would continue to support. And thanks for all the good work you guys are doing. Will hit a thumb up on XDA.
- Airyl
  September 18, 2015
  Actually, I do think that hiring an external team focused entirely on software development would be better. It would be something similar to Nexus devices or the YU devices, and every device would be constantly supported.
  - Hernán Castañón
    September 18, 2015
    That’s why we joined them. I have been working into create a really stock-like OS, with some features I feel are really cool, and focused into fix all kind of bugs. We already got a very bug-free build a few days ago, just trying to finish all of it.
    PD: Actually I’m a official core developer of Omni, as well as Nexus 5 maintainer for it, and also a YU Developer.
    - Allanitomwesh
      September 19, 2015
      I like that,stock-like is the best.
    - Koen De Croo
      September 25, 2015
      any news on this rom? My Jiayu S3 has been very buggy from the start with stock rom 4.4.
      multiple freeze ups when unlocking, restarts, bad GPS location.
      Also will flashing be made easy for noobs?

Burs
September 18, 2015
Again, no word for other models? There was even mentioning about CM some time ago. I guess I’ll have to rely on the rest of the community, like XDA and NeedRom. Then maybe I could get rid off my Jiayu more easily.
- Hernán Castañón
  September 18, 2015
  Hi! I´m the software engineer for the future releases for Jiayu. We will update as much devices as we can, always Jiayu give us the device and them data. And well, you can move over XDA, but just to inform, I am actually RD/RC there, and will post the versions there too.
- Natsumi
  September 18, 2015
  Se podrá customizar al SO desde cero? todos los móviles vienen con software y apps que nuca consigo instalar. Quiero una personalización total.
- Hernán Castañón
  September 18, 2015
  Sí, los features disponibles en el SO son todos adaptados al sistema internamente, y podrás elegir si activarlos o no activarlos.
  Nada de apks de terceros, ni bloatware, o funcionalidades sin terminar.
- Burs
  September 18, 2015
  Encantado de oír eso. Podemos esperar que las versiones para otros modelos de este año ya? Me gustaría saber los planes para el año pasado Jiayu S2, ya que sería genial tener Android 5.1 o CM instalado.
- Hernán Castañón
  September 18, 2015
  Bueno, nosotros nuestras ultimas compilaciones han sido hechas para el Jaiyu S3, ya que ha sido el terminal que nos cedieron hace ya algunos meses, pero ya hemos hablado con ellos de que nos gustaría soportar cuantos más dispositivos mejor. Creemos que nuestra compilación es suficientemente estable al igual que creemos que va a ser algo que los usuarios disfruten, y queremos discriminar cuantos menos terminales mejor.
- Guest
  September 19, 2015
  Hernán te quería preguntar, ¿Sabes si van a lanzar finalmente el modelo que anunció Andi? Enlace:http://www.gizchina.com/2015/09/03/breaking-new-jiayu-phone-in-the-works-a-balance-of-performance-and-price/
  En los comentarios comentó que sería de 5.5 pulgadas y con procesador Mediatek MT6753. La gente habla de potencia y más potencia, me quedo con un buen grupo de developers que mantengan actualizado el móvil, el software es más importante que el hardware. Si no sacan nada échale un vistazo al próximo Blackview BV9000 que va a estar muy enfocado a desarroladores como vosotros. Un saludo ;-).
- Guest
  September 19, 2015
  Hernán te quería preguntar, ¿Sabes si van a lanzar finalmente el modelo que anunció Andi? Enlace:http://www.gizchina.com/2015/09/03/breaking-new-jiayu-phone-in-the-works-a-balance-of-performance-and-price/
  En los comentarios comentó que sería de 5.5 pulgadas y con procesador Mediatek MT6753. La gente habla de potencia y más potencia, me quedo con un buen grupo de developers que mantengan actualizado el móvil, el software es más importante que el hardware. Si no sacan nada échale un vistazo al próximo Blackview BV9000 que va a estar muy enfocado a desarroladores como vosotros. Un saludo ;-).

Koen De Croo
September 18, 2015
a bit of help with downloading the right one, would be appreciated 🙂
Kieran olsson
September 18, 2015
Awesome!! TF i have used for years, their work is top notch, and they prefer stock android!! Gonna be great!
Horse7
September 18, 2015
How do we see the English instructions?
Pavlushka
September 18, 2015
Taking development seriously would mean to create own dev department, not to hire externals.
- Hernán Castañón
  September 18, 2015
  Taking developers in your own department means a lot of money to spend. Anyway, in this external team we are very coordinated between us which is like having your own department in an office. Expect a really lovely and featured 5.1.1 build for your Jiayu soon.
- Airyl
  September 18, 2015
  Actually, I do think that hiring an external team focused entirely on software development would be better. It would be something similar to Nexus devices or the YU devices, and every device would be constantly supported.
- Marco Lancaster
  September 18, 2015
  It actually came! made by Superdragonpt and DerTeufel1980 two xda devs working in partnership with Jiayu Deuschtland. Running it right now, is damn smooth, however its a bet and front camera is pinkish, but they are working on it.
- Allanitomwesh
  September 18, 2015
  The question I have,if you really are working on JiaYu’s,is how long as external devs will you support a phone? 1 year? 2 years? One Android version?
- Hernán Castañón
  September 18, 2015
  Well, I joined the team very very late, but as far as I know they have being sharing builds for really long time.
  Coming from myself, as much time I have the device functional I will plain to release builds.
- Hernán Castañón
  September 18, 2015
  We know there was one out, it’s the base of this article.
  Actually I’m one of the developers of TF Android, the official developers team for global,which you can see in this article.
  I am also a XDA developer as superdragonpt and DerTeufel1980. Them build is amazing and works like a charm, but our build also flies. Not gaining credit, but we have been working so hard in our modded OS just to get everything running incredible.
- Hernán Castañón
  September 18, 2015
  That’s why we joined them. I have been working into create a really stock-like OS, with some features I feel are really cool, and focused into fix all kind of bugs. We already got a very bug-free build a few days ago, just trying to finish all of it.
  PD: Actually I’m a official core developer of Omni, as well as Nexus 5 maintainer for it, and also a YU Developer.
- Marco Lancaster
  September 18, 2015
  No problem! It’s like the old saying the more, the better. S3 is a pretty good phone, but still lacks a stable build with the remaining bugs fixed. And after the stability get reached it also have a lot of potential to get another Custom Roms.
- King
  September 19, 2015
  Nice to know. However, looks like the understanding is valid from 1 September 2015 to 31 December 2015. What happens after 4 months? Hope you would continue to support. And thanks for all the good work you guys are doing. Will hit a thumb up on XDA.
- Allanitomwesh
  September 19, 2015
  I like that,stock-like is the best.
- Koen De Croo
  September 25, 2015
  any news on this rom? My Jiayu S3 has been very buggy from the start with stock rom 4.4.
  multiple freeze ups when unlocking, restarts, bad GPS location.
  Also will flashing be made easy for noobs?
Marco Lancaster
September 18, 2015
- FlashTec
  September 19, 2015
  - Marco Lancaster
    September 19, 2015
    This 5.1.1 Build that I’m running is a independant version of the official Rom.
    I have tested it for a few time so far the front camera is better, more clear and not blurred as previous builds. rear is good but on KK it seems better. The system seems more smooth and as the whole the Rom looks close to a finished thing, but still there is some room for improvement.

FlashTec
September 18, 2015
Just me that would like a new review of the phone comparing it to one with the old system?
Marco Lancaster
September 18, 2015
Well I’m running Android 5.1.1 on S3 right now thanks to Jiayu.de.
- FlashTec
  September 19, 2015
  Noticing any differences? The article sais improvments on the camera, are there any noticeable changes?
- Marco Lancaster
  September 19, 2015
  This 5.1.1 Build that I’m running is a independant version of the official Rom.
  I have tested it for a few time so far the front camera is better, more clear and not blurred as previous builds. rear is good but on KK it seems better. The system seems more smooth and as the whole the Rom looks close to a finished thing, but still there is some room for improvement.

FlashTec
September 18, 2015
Just me that would like a new review of the phone comparing it to one with the old system?
hmck
September 19, 2015
i will explain how they fix the pinkys camera issue ; they have setted the white balance to day light on camera,when you open camera it looks yellow but when you change to auto it is still pink. Also every time you have to change it beceasu it is not settable to auto. They are joking with people like this,fixing means for them is cheating people like this.

Horse7
September 19, 2015
Could someone talk us through the process to manually download the lollypop update for s3s,please. A link or a utube would be excellent. According to jaiyu support the OTA is coming soon. Do we need to download to a pc and transfer files to the s3s?
- Anderson Casotti
  September 19, 2015
  search this on youtube
  flash mtk device with flashtool tutorial jiayu s3 erald
  I have lollipop now, but i cant install gapps on it
  🙁
  - Horse7
    September 20, 2015
    - Anderson Casotti
      September 20, 2015
      Now I understand , the recovery in the ROM doesnt permit to install , I got the recovery.img for the jiayu apk and overwrite. Then the instalation with recovery became possible again.
      Very happy with the ROM. Android became faster (noticeable) and battery is better but it’s too early (for me) to tell more.
      Ah, the 4g is more stable.
      - AKD
        September 24, 2015
        
        Anderson Casotti
        September 26, 2015
        The ideal is to overwrite the recovery.img in the rom before flash the rom.
        if, like me, you didn’t that, you can flash only the recovery.
        I have good will but bad english so try to understand me here.
        first you download jiayu.es and using the app you download the recovery.img
        take this file (recovery.img) and overwrite it on the rom folder
        open the flash tool
        unmark everything but recovery
        flash again.
        After this , you will be able to install gapps, root and everything else via recovery …
        put the gapps zip on sd
        power your phone in recovery mode (power and volume up)
        chose install option
        select the gapps zip
        install
        good to go
        For me the biggest difference is the battery life improvements.
        For instance,
        playing blood brothers using 4g used to heat the phone and now its much better, almost unnoticeable the generated heat.
        Hope it helps
        cheers from Brasil

Guest
September 19, 2015
i will explain how they fix the pinkys camera issue ; they have setted the white balance to day light on camera,when you open camera it looks yellow but when you change to auto it is still pink. Also every time you have to change it beceasu it is not settable to auto. They are joking with people like this,fixing means for them is cheating people like this.
Horse7
September 19, 2015
Could someone talk us through the process to manually download the lollypop update for s3s,please. A link or a utube would be excellent. According to jaiyu support the OTA is coming soon. Do we need to download to a pc and transfer files to the s3s?
- Anderson Casotti
  September 20, 2015
  search this on youtube
  flash mtk device with flashtool tutorial jiayu s3 erald
  I have lollipop now, but i cant install gapps on it
  🙁
- Horse7
  September 20, 2015
  So u have lost play store and maybe more?
- Anderson Casotti
  September 20, 2015
  Now I understand , the recovery in the ROM doesnt permit to install , I got the recovery.img for the jiayu apk and overwrite. Then the instalation with recovery became possible again.
  Very happy with the ROM. Android became faster (noticeable) and battery is better but it’s too early (for me) to tell more.
  Ah, the 4g is more stable.
- Guest
  September 24, 2015
  Can you share the steps to installs Gapps….I have been struggling
- Anderson Casotti
  September 26, 2015
  The ideal is to overwrite the recovery.img in the rom before flash the rom.
  if, like me, you didn’t that, you can flash only the recovery.
  I have good will but bad english so try to understand me here.
  first you download jiayu.es and using the app you download the recovery.img
  take this file (recovery.img) and overwrite it on the rom folder
  open the flash tool
  unmark everything but recovery
  flash again.
  After this , you will be able to install gapps, root and everything else via recovery …
  put the gapps zip on sd
  power your phone in recovery mode (power and volume up)
  chose install option
  select the gapps zip
  install
  good to go
  For me the biggest difference is the battery life improvements.
  For instance,
  playing blood brothers using 4g used to heat the phone and now its much better, almost unnoticeable the generated heat.
  Hope it helps
  cheers from Brasil
Anderson Casotti
September 19, 2015
I flashed but I am unable to install gapps or root with recovery
I don’t know what to do anymore. I have lollipop but without gapps its useless to me
Anderson Casotti
September 20, 2015
I flashed but I am unable to install gapps or root with recovery
I don’t know what to do anymore. I have lollipop but without gapps its useless to me

Hmck
September 20, 2015
Find twrp for lolipop then change name to recovery.img . put in to last rom which you have flashed. From sp flash tool tick just recovery with scaterfile with that rom an choose download only. Then you can install gapps gibi from recovery (i prefer open gapps arm64 5.1 full one)
Guest
September 20, 2015
Find twrp for lolipop then change name to recovery.img . put in to last rom which you have flashed. From sp flash tool tick just recovery with scaterfile with that rom an choose download only. Then you can install gapps gibi from recovery (i prefer open gapps arm64 5.1 full one)

Horse7
September 20, 2015
Will there be an ota for this? No point in messing it up if an ota is on the way.
Horse7
September 20, 2015
Will there be an ota for this? No point in messing it up if an ota is on the way.
nfc
September 21, 2015
will they support mifare classic tags in the future? i can’t read my bluetooth headset’s nfc.

Guest
September 21, 2015
will they support mifare classic tags in the future? i can’t read my bluetooth headset’s nfc.
kzm
September 22, 2015
I just flash it with TF Xtreme ROM..is Jiayu official ROM is better than Xtreme ROM?
kzm
September 22, 2015
I just flash S3 with TF Xtreme ROM..is Jiayu official ROM is better than Xtreme ROM?

Arafat Al-mamun
October 11, 2015
lolipop update for 3gb version or 2 gb?
If 3 gb then what about the 2 gb version that we are owing ?
Arafat Al-mamun
October 11, 2015
lolipop update for 3gb version or 2 gb?
If 3 gb then what about the 2 gb version that we are owing ?

Pakos Raja
December 8, 2015
TF Xtreme is totally crap.. It works, but the minor bugs makes the rom useless.
Bugss like, it takes ages to connect to the 4G network.
And while calling i cant use the damnn data connection.
Battery drains much faster, as far i know it should last longer.
Some of my friends claimed, that they werent recieving my voice when i was calling them…

Pakos Raja
December 8, 2015
TF Xtreme is totally crap.. It works, but the minor bugs makes the rom useless.
Bugss like, it takes ages to connect to the 4G network.
And while calling i cant use the damnn data connection.
Battery drains much faster, as far i know it should last longer.
Some of my friends claimed, that they werent recieving my voice when i was calling them…
tarr
February 23, 2016
For Jiayu S2 Android 5.1?
Guest
February 23, 2016

JiaYu reveal new software partner and release 9.17 Android 5.1 for the JiaYu S3

Gizchina News of the week

Andi

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