How to transform your Galaxy S4 into an S5

It didn't take long, but all the tools you need to transform your Galaxy S4 into an S5 are already available. In this tutorial we'll show you how to get the Quick Settings, notifications shade, settings menu (in both round icon and list view), wallpapers, icons and the new Galaxy S5 apps. You'll even get access to the impressive new Download Booster option.

With a little bit of work you can set your S4 up like an S5. / © AndroidPIT

What you need

You'll need a rooted S4 running on Android 4.4.2 and a few file downloads we'll move onto in a minute. You'll also need a root explorer like ES File Explorer or Total Commander.

ES File Explorer File ManagerINSTALL

Total Commander - file managerINSTALL

Notification shade and Quick Settings

All you need to do for this is go into your root explorer of choice, and head into the root folder, hit System and scroll down to build.prop and open that up. You'll see a ton of information about your device. All you need to do is locate the ro.product.name and ro.product.device entries and change them to SM-N900S. Save your changes and reboot. You'll now have the new icons in the notifications shade and your Quick Setting will look like those on the S5.

In your file manager, find the build.prop file and rename your device to SM-N900S / © Android Essentials

Now your Galaxy S4 will have the same new icons as found on the Galaxy S5. / © Android Essentials

Galaxy S5 apps

These were recently leaked on XDA Developers forum so all you need to do is head over there and grab the APKs for the apps you want. Of course, you're rooted so just delete the previous bloatware versions that you want to replace and grab the new ones you want and install as you would any other APK. Of course, you need to have ''Unknown Sources'' enabled in your security settings first.

Galaxy S5 wallpapers and icons

The Galaxy S5 wallpapers you can grab with a quick and easy app install from the Play Store. I checked early last week and the offerings were pretty slim (and inaccurate) but they've improved a lot in a short time. There's also a decent-looking Solo theme that'll also get you the Galaxy S5 flat icons.

You can get the Galaxy S5 wallpaper and theme with flat icons. / © Android Essentials/Stock Wallpapers/Chcolate Pie

Galaxy S5 WallpapersINSTALL

${app-com.solo.theme.galaxys5}

Settings menu with list view

All you need to do to get your Settings menu looking like those on the Galaxy S5 is to grab an APK and replace an existing root file with the new one. So head on over to this XDA Developers thread and grab the APK, then open your root explorer and copy that APK into the System/priv-app folder. Once you've done this you need to rename the APK to something easy like SecSettings2.apk and change its permissions to look like those in the screenshot. Once you've done this you can simply remove (but don't delete) the original SecSettings.apk and SecSettings.odex (if you're odexed) and then reboot.

Drop the APK into the System/priv-app folder and rename it like the existing SecSettings.apk / © Android Essentials

Set the new APK's permissions (left) and remove the original SecSettings.apk (and odex) / © Android Essentials

If you have any issues, make sure you have these permissions set up for root access in your file manager. / © Android Essentials

You'll now have two settings icons in your app drawer. One will take you to your old Settings menu and the other to the Galaxy S5-style menu. Some settings will crash, like the fingerprint scanner module for obvious reasons, but you'll have access to Download Booster and other cool features. If you don't like the big round icons just tap the menu button (left button next to Home button) and switch to List View. Now, if you don't see List view you can jump to another XDA thread where you'll find a separate APK for the Note 3 that resolves the missing List View on the S4 as well. Just repeat the same process above with the new APK and you'll be golden. The new Settings menu is a little unstable and some users are reporting some force closes or crashes but it's still pretty cool.

After rebooting, you'll have the Galaxy S5-style settings menu. / © Android Essentials

If you don't like the large icons you can switch to List View. / © Android Essentials

Download Booster (left) and the two Settings menu icons. / © Android Essentials

Have you set up your Galaxy S4 to look like an S5? With these changes on board is there now no reason at all to upgrade?