Now that Lollipop has finally been unveiled to the public in its final form, and now that we know about all the features and performance improvements, its time to answer the big question: just when am I going to get it? Well, we all know that Nexus devices, being supported directly by Google, are likely to be the first ones, but what about everyone else? Well, everybody take note of Motorola, because 2 of their devices have already received a soak test of Lollipop – even ahead of the Nexus 5 and 7, a move that left a lot of Nexus enthusiasts scratching their heads, as Motorola beat Google to the punch.
Motorola has been pretty good at keeping its promises – the Moto G and Moto X KitKat update came well ahead of everyone’s expectations, and so far all the devices that have been promised to receive an update actually got it, and it came in time. However, being that Motorola is no longer a Google-owned company, having been bought out by Lenovo, there were fears that this situation might change – Chinese OEMs are infamous for randomly dropping support for their devices or keeping them exclusive to a certain line. But rest assured, as this doesn’t seem to be the case – both the 2014 Moto G and Moto X Pure Edition have already started receiving their soak tests for Lollipop, meaning that they should start reaching every device in a few days. In the meantime, you can look at the changelog and list of changes in this new release.
In terms of changes, you know the drill by now. Besides all the improvements that Lollipop brings to the table, Motorola likes to keep their new devices as close to stock Android as possible, and this is no exception. The update brings the Material Design elements as Google intended, and in terms of extra software, all there really is are updated editions of their core services, including Motorola Assist and the Moto Display for always-listening and gestures. Of course, the advantage of keeping things this simple and close to stock is the relative ease to update the software, so it’s nice to see that Motorola is taking advantage of that by bringing updates mere days/weeks after the unveiling of the new version of the Android OS – something that would be a pipe dream a couple of years ago.
In terms of the performance with the new OS, it seems to be good news all around. Even the Moto G, which is admittedly a bit underpowered in the specs department, seems to run Lollipop like a dream and so far it actually seems to perform better. Since the update is relatively fresh, there are still some aspects to figure out, like how it will handle the increasingly meager 1GB of RAM and how the new multitasking system will fit into that. Apart from that, the new runtime is awesome, all the new animations sprinkled throughout the system make it seem more fresh and dynamic than ever, and along with Motorola, all the other OEMs seem hard at work to bring Lollipop to their flagship devices as soon as possible. This update feels like the best one yet, and save for some obscure bug or non-working feature that will only become apparent later (but Google has a long tradition of these issues slipping under the radar by now), it really brings a new life and mojo to all of these devices that were once discarded, like the Nexus 4. Keep your eyes peeled for your update, coming soon!
Motorola has been pretty good at keeping its promises – the Moto G and Moto X KitKat update came well ahead of everyone’s expectations, and so far all the devices that have been promised to receive an update actually got it, and it came in time. However, being that Motorola is no longer a Google-owned company, having been bought out by Lenovo, there were fears that this situation might change – Chinese OEMs are infamous for randomly dropping support for their devices or keeping them exclusive to a certain line. But rest assured, as this doesn’t seem to be the case – both the 2014 Moto G and Moto X Pure Edition have already started receiving their soak tests for Lollipop, meaning that they should start reaching every device in a few days. In the meantime, you can look at the changelog and list of changes in this new release.
In terms of changes, you know the drill by now. Besides all the improvements that Lollipop brings to the table, Motorola likes to keep their new devices as close to stock Android as possible, and this is no exception. The update brings the Material Design elements as Google intended, and in terms of extra software, all there really is are updated editions of their core services, including Motorola Assist and the Moto Display for always-listening and gestures. Of course, the advantage of keeping things this simple and close to stock is the relative ease to update the software, so it’s nice to see that Motorola is taking advantage of that by bringing updates mere days/weeks after the unveiling of the new version of the Android OS – something that would be a pipe dream a couple of years ago.
In terms of the performance with the new OS, it seems to be good news all around. Even the Moto G, which is admittedly a bit underpowered in the specs department, seems to run Lollipop like a dream and so far it actually seems to perform better. Since the update is relatively fresh, there are still some aspects to figure out, like how it will handle the increasingly meager 1GB of RAM and how the new multitasking system will fit into that. Apart from that, the new runtime is awesome, all the new animations sprinkled throughout the system make it seem more fresh and dynamic than ever, and along with Motorola, all the other OEMs seem hard at work to bring Lollipop to their flagship devices as soon as possible. This update feels like the best one yet, and save for some obscure bug or non-working feature that will only become apparent later (but Google has a long tradition of these issues slipping under the radar by now), it really brings a new life and mojo to all of these devices that were once discarded, like the Nexus 4. Keep your eyes peeled for your update, coming soon!
.jpg)
