If you own a Samsung Galaxy S2, you'll be happy to know that Samsung has released the official Jelly Bean 4.1.2 update for its 2-year-old smartphone. And this is the cherry on the cake - it comes with useful features such as Smart Stay, Pop-up and Direct Calling, which owners of Galaxy S2's successor - Galaxy S3 - enjoyed till now.

Yes, the official Jelly Bean 4.1.2 update brings the almost 2-year-old smartphone up to date with Samsung's current flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2, including the same UI currently found on the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2.

The update can be installed a few different ways. If you're the patient type and don't mind waiting for your carrier to approve the update and release it to your device OTA you can take that route. However, if you're like most Android fans craving to try out the latest and greatest version of Android right now, you can update via the Samsung's Kies application on your computer.

The update will bring many new features and enhancements to the Galaxy S2. Users can expect a smoother and faster UI thanks to Jelly Bean's Project Butter feature which is reason enough to update to Jelly Bean. Jelly Bean also brings a new lock screen to Android.

Galaxy S2 users will also get to access one of the best features of Jelly Bean - Google Now. Google Now is a new Jelly Bean feature and is Android's answer to Siri, but it completely surpasses Apple's digital assistant in terms of performance and speed.

With the update, Galaxy S2 users will also get new Samsung-specific features like Smart Stay, Pop-up Play, and Direct Calling. Samsung has also updated TouchWiz for Jelly Bean, offering TouchWiz Nature UX, a new notification bar, and new toggles introduced with Jelly Bean. There are even more features you'll discover included with this Jelly Bean update but we don't want this article to be a spoiler.

It's great to see a company release a major software update and bring a device that is currently almost two years old, on to the same playing field as the OS found on its current flagship smartphones. More companies need to follow Samsung's commitment to supporting older devices by releasing major software release versions. This type of service goes a long way, especially when a customer is upgrading to a new smartphone and wants to feel confident that they will not be stuck on the OS their device shipped with when an updated version gets released by Google.