Google Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean"

Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean" is a solid refinement of what is now the world's most popular OS on new smartphones. While calling it 5.0 would have been a stretch, it's more significant than you'd expect for a point upgrade. For now, you can only get Android 4.1 on a few devices, including the Samsung Galaxy Nexus ($199.99, 4 stars) and Samsung Nexus S (3.5 stars) phones, and the Google Nexus 7 ($199, 4.5 stars) and Motorola Xoom (3.5 stars) tablets. The upgrades will roll out sometime in the middle of July as over-the-air updates. There's nothing revolutionary about Android 4.1—the new Google Now feature comes close, but it doesn't work well enough just yet. Still, there are so many minor updates and overall performance improvements that Jelly Bean adds up to our new Editors' Choice for mobile smartphone OSes.