The Padfone S is a rather old device from a software point of view. Asus’ smartphone was launched on the market back in July 2014, so it shouldn’t receive any major OS updates anymore. Google’s policy to provide OS update for devices that are not older than 2 years is applied by many handset makers as well.
The good news is Asus has had a change of heart, as the Padfone S is now receiving the long-awaited Android 6.0 Marshmallow update. The OTA (over the air) update brings a lot of changes for Padfone S users, but more importantly it significantly decreases internal storage.
Also, if you plan to update to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, you should move all your apps to the internal storage of the phone since APP2SD won’t be supported anymore after the update.
Lots of apps that many considered bloatware will be removed with the update, including Asus Backup, Mirror, Remote Link, PC Link, Photo Frame, Asus MyFrame, Data Transfer, Snap View, Dr. Safety, and many more.
All these app will no longer be pre-loaded one you’ve updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Moreover, the update is supposed to add new features and new apps like Google Calendar and Google Messenger.
All Asus apps will be removed too
Another set of apps such as Asus Email, Asus Calendar, Asus Messaging, Asus Browser, Puffin Browser, Yandex search, Yandex Browser and Asus Music will be removed as well after factory reset.
Instead, Padfone S users are advised to use the new Google apps that come with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, or other relevant services. One other change affecting the Padfone S after the update is the removal of the multi-user support.
Asus also states that Padfone S users should uninstall the latest version of Asus Launcher before updating to avoid possible layout issues in PAD mode.
This is likely to be the last major OS update that Padfone S will receive, but Android 6.0 Marshmallow is already a solid iteration of Google’s platform. Android N is very rare these days anyways.
