Missing settings on O2 locked Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

[Typhoon1944]

I upgraded from a pay monthly SIM only deal to a Galaxy Note 4 on 03 May.  After a few days checking it out, I've noticed that some of the settings that should be available aren't there.  The only ones I can remember at the moment are things like the Home Screen settings are not there, Transition Effects, unable to remove the Flipboard Notification page and there's no option to set an unlock effect such as "Ripple", but I'm sure there are others.  Things like the Flipboard and Ripple effect aren't that important but I think it's strange that a brand new phone seems to be running a cut down version of Kit Kat.  My S4 Mini DUOS had all options available.

Having carried out a Google search I've found that some US carriers will remove settings from their locked versions of Android and it would appear that O2 are doing the same.  However, I had a live chat with a customer services rep earlier and she advised that a 4 day old handset was faulty and to return it to the store.  I'm pretty sure the handset is fine as my partner upgraded her contract on the same day, (to the same phone), and her settings are exactly the same as mine so I'd be fairly confident at staking £10 that it's O2 customising the OS rather than a hardware fault.

I have requested an unlock so I can at least connect to Samsung KIES and download the full ROM directly from Samsung but the unlock will take 7 days and I'd rather not have the hassle of doing a software update until Lollipop is released.

Has anyone else come across this and is there anything I can do easily restore the missing settings?

[jonsie]

As far as I'm aware only iPhones are locked until the device is paid off.  However if the phone has o2 firmware unlocking won't make any difference to as to how and when the upgrade becomes available. 

To be honest I'm a little out of touch over here but I was under the impression that o2 had approved the Note 4 upgrade,  certainly it's been released for my unbranded note 4.

[MI5]

Yes O2 have released lollipop and no, you haven't been given dodgy info, but it won't help you. All it will do is unlock the phone.
You should have lollipop but some of those features you have mentioned aren't in lollipop so that won't help you either.
To get what you want you will need to complete the unlock then manually flash the generic Samsung kit kat rom off Sammobile.

[Anonymous]

Thank you @MI5 & @jonsie for clarifying