Unofficial CyanogenMod 10.1 available for the international Samsung Galaxy S III

Just over a week ago, Steve Kondik, the founder of the popular custom distribution CyanogenMod, revealed that CM10.1 builds based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean will soon be released for US variants of the Samsung Galaxy S III. However, the highly anticipated custom ROM is already available for the international model, albeit with unofficial tags.

Galaxy S III users that want to install the unofficial builds can expect a similar functionality to the official CM10.1 releases available today. As the feature porting process is not completed, it won’t come as any surprise that some of the features included in previous CyanogenMod iterations are still missing or not yet adapted for Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. Due to the unofficial nature and the infancy of the source code, users may also encounter some bugs as well.

The unofficial CyanogenMod 10.1 release can be installed just like any other by flashing the available build and the adjacent Google Apps package using a compatible custom recovery tool such as ClockworkMod or TWRP.

Even though it lacks all the bells and whistles, this effort to deliver functional CM 10.1 builds ahead of official availability is commendable. Furthermore, it means impatient enthusiasts that wish to test the latest version of Android won't have to wait for Samsung either.