The Android 5.0 Lollipop Review
by Brandon Chester on December 1, 2014 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Android
- Tablets
- Android 5.0
Final Words
I think Google really hit the nail on the head with Android Lollipop. It evokes the same sort of feeling that the release of iOS 7 did, without some of the negative experiences that followed. Getting a brand new interface is always exciting, as it can dramatically change how it feels to use your phone. Moving from KitKat to Lollipop still provides you with a familiar Android experience, but it almost feels like getting a brand new phone in a way. There's a brand new UI, and big improvements to performance. But unlike the upgrade to iOS 7, Android Lollipop hasn't plagued my devices with application crashes and other bugs. In fact, I haven't really noticed any significant bugs at all after upgrading to Lollipop, which says a great deal about the work Google has put into testing to make sure things are stable.
Material Design impresses me, and I think it's going to be around for many years to come. I find this feeling reassuring, as Google has a track record of redesigning large portions of Android with every major release. With the past designs, I never really felt like they were going to stick around for very long, and they never did. Material Design feels like Google has finally gotten Android to where they want it to be, with an interface that doesn't need any OEM overlays to be presentable. Of course, some OEMs will never change their policy of putting their own skin, but that's something Google isn't going to be able to fix. While we may see very iterative changes to Lollipop's interface in future updates, I don't think they're going to be anything beyond changes to the placement of buttons or the color of icons. Material Design also extends far beyond your Android device. It will eventually apply to all of Google's services on all platforms, so that your web browser, your tablet, your smartphone, and even your watch will all look and behave similarly.
The performance increases are also greatly appreciated. Android hardware has advanced rapidly, and the move to a new application runtime is overdue, but warmly welcomed. The improvements it can bring to a device are actually amazing; it can feel like getting a brand new phone. The interface performance on Android still isn't quite perfect, but to be quite honest, it's not at all alone in this regard. I can name areas of every major smartphone OS that are susceptible to drops in frame rate, it's just not possible to write perfect software. I think what can be said is that overall, Android is pretty much at the same level as Windows Phone and iOS for animation smoothness and general performance. There is still the exception of certain poorly written applications which are up to developers to fix, and some of these even come from Google themselves, but I'm confident that we're moving toward a point where these remaining issues will be fixed simply because they aren't acceptable anymore.
Of course, the last thing to discuss about an Android update is whether or not you're going to get it. Unfortunately, I still can't answer this question for most users. Android's nature means that Google doesn't have any influence over users receiving their updates, except the users that have Nexus and Google Play Edition devices. Although I can't guarantee you an update, I can say that the situation is looking good for more users than it has in the past. We've seen updates ship in record time from companies like LG, NVIDIA, and Motorola, and they should be commended for putting in the effort to get updates out to users in a reasonable time. Other companies like HTC have made promises to update their flagship devices from this year and last year to Lollipop within a 90 day time frame. While this doesn't cover every Android user in the world, it covers more users than we've ever seen in the past.
Going into the future, there are some improvements Google should make. Continuing to work on the performance of problematic applications is definitely necessary, as they stand out more than ever alongside a library of extremely well performing apps. I think it would be worth it to start creating special landscape layouts for applications, and to introduce more features that take advantage of larger displays. Google has entered the phablet market with the Nexus 6, and they need to create software that provides a reason for having such large devices. The only other thing they need to do is to continue innovating and improving, which they've been able to do time and time again. We haven't yet seen everything that Android Lollipop has to offer, as developers are only beginning to take advantage of the new APIs and features it brings. But with a great new interface, new applications, a new runtime, and new users adopting Android every day, the future of Android certainly looks bright.
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lpyihui - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
How about Project Volta and the battery life on Nexus 5?Brandon Chester - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
I responded earlier in the comments about this. There's really no way to benchmark Volta, it has no impact on anything like web browsing or video playback tests.genghisquan - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
My experience with Lollipop went from positive to negative after the first week. I absolutely loved the concept & execution of Material Design. The other things that I was excited for with 5.0 was how smooth everything would feel and better battery performance. I'm so disappointed with those two things because things feel even more sluggish than it did on KitKat, and battery life isn't noticeably better at all! I seriously have sent more complaints/feedback while using Lollipop than I ever did on KitKat.Impulses - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
Thank the Google Gods there's a setting in Chrome to disable it's tabs from invading the multi tasker, or I probably would've had to switch browsers.jabber - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
I was really looking forward to just ONE thing from Lollipop for my Nexus 4 and that was the potential to use RAW capability for the camera.Unfortunately, Google decided not to update the Nexus 4 camera API. Thanks Google.
zodiacfml - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
1. I don't feel the new Android much since I'm using a different launcher just to remove Google's search bar on the main screen.2. I like the flashlight capability, goodbye flashlight app. It still has a bug though. When it sleeps, it just stops working and the camera app will crash.
3. I appreciate the Auto rotate shortcut missing from the the previous.
4. Battery life seems the same. I have been using the excellent Greenify App. Yet, there should be a way to control power draining issue when the phone has little or no cellular signal.
5. ART has probably remove very small stutters in some apps. Overall, my N5 is very smooth and quick and nothing left to ask for.
6. Google camera HDR has become slower and faster depending on the scene. It's still the best way to get good photos from a smartphone. I hope for manual controls, RAW mode, and other powerful features such as 60 fps video capture on 720p.
7. Now the UI and most messaging/social apps use white background, there should definitely a content aware Auto Brightness control so that it lowers the backlight for such content and then boosts again for full screen photos or videos.
8. A very small and niche annoyance for is the missing IP Address from the WiFi information page. In 5.0, I can only find it in About Phone - Status. I currently use my phone to troubleshoot WiFi connectivity at work and implementation of 5GHz AP setup.
9. I don't like the Photo app. It still feels the Backup Photo App. I have to download a 3rd party app for viewing pictures since they have removed the Gallery app.
10. There should be an option to bring out the keyboard immediately when unlocking the phone. In 5.0, it will require to swipe the lock icon first which is probably useful if you to want to read your notifications first before deciding to unlock the phone.
darkich - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
What a disappointing review.Pointless talk about frame rates and not a word about aspects that actually have practical merit and value - comparative battery endurance and application loading times.
Sigh
Alexey291 - Thursday, December 4, 2014 - link
I know its like I'm on engadget or something...IKeelU - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
As an N4 user who's been using the Google Now launcher since it was available as a standalone APK last year (for those who haven't tried it, you can get it from the google play store now and it's terrific), I didn't feel as "shocked" by lollipop as I did by kitkat. Like with all android updates, it feels like the google apps were gradually updated prior to the OS update so I was already sort of used to the design changes.If your apps were fully updated, and you've been using Google Now Launcher, in day-to-day use there's really just 3 main changes: notification bar, homescreen, general smoothness. All good changes IMO.
oturn - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
"I think what can be said is that overall, Android is pretty much at the same level as Windows Phone and iOS for animation smoothness and general performance."Crazy talk! I have a 2nd gen Moto X with Lollipop, and an iPhone 6. I switch between them weekly. The smoothness and general performance of the iPhone 6 / iOS is ALWAYS a breath of fresh air compared to Android, Lollipop included. I hate it, because I prefer Android, but there it is. It slaps me in the face every time. There's nothing subjective it. It's obvious.