Today we are rolling out Android 5.1 – an update to Lollipop that improves stability and performance and offers a few new features like support for multiple SIM cards, Device Protection and high definition (HD) voice on compatible phones.
Not coming any time soon to an Android device near you.
After the very stable 4.4, 5.0 is a mess on any device I’ve tried it on. Had to revert the update on my wife’s Nexus 4 because it just drained the battery in no time. Have it on a Nexus 7 and it’s choppy. Even worse on the Nexus 10. Lots of crashes with various apps and a headache to support for our apps. Luckily hardly no one runs it so we didn’t get too many support calls about it yet!
Weird… I currently only have one android device (my Nexus 5) and use Cyanogenmod 12 nightlies on it. I also tried the Stock 5.0 Rom and had no problems with it.
Well, I don’t agree at all with you. I have a Nexus 4 and I run Lollipop on it since day 1 and never had problems with battery life. It’s much better than 4.x for me. Also, applications are much responsive than before.
Choppy? On the Nexus7 2012 it is next to unusable. Abysmal Wifi performance, wich connections dropped continually even 2m away from the router, and constant total lockups that last several seconds, especially when using Chrome.
I have postponed downgrading to Kitkat in the hope of a prompt solution to those problems. Maybe the solution is coming, though prompt it will be not.
I think that the experience differs a lot, which is not good news in terms of stability. In my case with a Nexus 4, Lollipop performs great and battery life lasts much longer. With the Nexus 7 it’s even more interesting: my account is horribly slow, while my wife’s account (main user) performs very well.
For me, going from cm-11 (Android 4.4) to cm-12 (5.0) nightlies has produced some minor instabilities, but is a general improvement in terms of battery life.
But, that wasn’t until I had done a factory reset. The initial upgrade was quite flaky, but after I wiped the phone and reinstalled from scratch, it’s been much better, so I suspect it doesn’t upgrade too well.
In short, I’d backup your data, wipe the phone, restore your data and take it from there. While you’re at it, I’d also recommend using an after market ROM, as you get updates and fixes much quicker.
I tend to agree here.
Android 5 is stable for the first week or so but afterwards it all goes downhill:
– calls being dropped
– apps causing crash in the launcher (and sometimes rebooting all of the sudden)
– higher battery usage when wifi is active (comparing to 4.4)
– loss of wifi signal on 5Ghz band
Most important is the very first one, which was reported by so many Nexus 4 users that is no longer funny. Sad thing is that Google marked it with minimal impact and is yet to address this.
When a smartphone looses it’s intended purpose, ow can this be considered anything but a beta/alpha testing done by Google on users back?
It’s not all Google’s fault here. App developers probably have yet to optimize their apps for Android 5 let alone for Nexus devices that tend to be rare specimens in the Android market.
Even Google wants to make them obsolete
Lollipop has been just peachy on my Galaxy S5.
” Not coming any time soon to an Android device near you.”
Ha! Isn’t that the truth. New Android releases are always so anticlimactic, because we know full well that we won’t get any of the new goodness on our current devices.
But considering all the horror stories I’ve heard (esp from Samsung owners), I’m not sure this is necessarily a bad thing. I mean, is Lollipop REALLY out of beta yet? I can only feel sorry for Nexus owners, who appear to be Google’s official guinea pigs.
When it comes to my 2013 Moto X, I’ll probably wait at least a couple of weeks before installing. Not that I’m hating on Android though, as I also do the same with iOS. Nobody seems to be properly testing their shit these days.
Edited 2015-03-09 22:56 UTC
Lollipop works somewhat well on my Nexus 4, but drains the battery a bit faster. On my Nexus 7 (2012), it will periodically slurp down battery as if it were mixed with vodka, and it’s still nearly impossible to find out why. Stability is like before: pretty good.
That happens when the ignorant try to play developer, never had a single problem on any Samsung device
Lolipop is out of beta. It’s quite stable. Nexus 5 has had battery issues since day one. And everything else on Lolipop has been very stable for me.(Nexus 4, 5 and 10)
FWIW Lollipop is running well on my 2013 Moto G, battery life seems a bit improved over 4.4. Even more so if I enable power-saving mode when my battery is low.
I always watch Google IO just to get an idea where Android is going, but with the clear understanding it will take buying a new device to get those features.
This is what happens when they play ball with the OEMs and mobile operators.
Symbian devices, which were the best in updates back then, also hardly had more than one update or plain bug fixes.
“Not coming any time soon to an Android device near you.”
My “premium†Sony Xperia Z3 still haven’t gotten the Android 5.0 update! Now you’re telling me that even after I get the 5.0 update I wouldn’t be fully updated? Hm, so much for Sony’s promise of fast updates.
Hmm, I read topic as Area 51..
Factory images already available for some devices:
https://developers.google.com/android/nexus/images
The OTA update on the other hand…
Edited 2015-03-10 07:33 UTC
While I agree that the lack of updates in Android devices is the biggest problem with the platform, we need to see that not all devices are created equal.
Not coming any time soon to an Android device near you.
Not at all, it’s already available for my Nexus 4 and 7, and my mate’s Nexus 5 and 6. I thought about this update problem before buying my devices.
You just cannot trust hardware manufacturers to keep software up to date, that’s not how they roll and that will not change anytime soon, so you have to vote with your wallet, either buying a Nexus device, or checking for something compatible with alternative ROMs. To be fair, I think Google is also on the top of the list of who to blame, for not enforcing upgrades.
Regarding 5.1, I really like that they now have official support for dual-SIM devices. That was one of the issues with some phones, they could never be updated, not even with alternative ROMs, because no one was giving a rat’s ass on dual-SIM. Hopefully we can see a dual-SIM Nexus soon, although I’m somewhat doubtful, unfortunately. I would buy it in a heartbeat.
Except Google also does not upgrade all their devices.
Just do what i do … base your shopping on cyanogen’s official and unofficial port list …
I’ve LONG since stopped caring about the stock rom for any phone. They all suck compared to stock android / cyanogen, period.
I’ve had CM12 (currently Android 5.0.2-based, no doubt moving to 5.1 in the next few months) on my tablets for several months now and haven’t seen any lag or excessive battery usage. On my slowest device, a 2012 Nexus 7, I did a complete wipe before installation, which seems to help avoid any lag issues.
If Google really want to fix the “left behind” situation of many Android OEM vendors it should give a little slice of anything sold on app store to them using the OEM device identification for it.
The current situation for all OEM is almost sell and forget as the incentive to keep updating the device after it was sold is almost inexistent (sans the bug corrections). Actually, they may be tempted to not update the device at all as they want to sell a new one.
New OS versions usually come with new functionalities that the application developers can use and, as so, the OEM vendors can earn a bit more money from software release cycle. Perhaps, it would compel them to keep updating their ROM images.
Anyway, what is the chance that Google would do it?