I have just sideloaded my Nexus 7 to Lollipop as I can't wait for the official OTA update. My first impressive is pretty 'meh'. Flat design is the trend, but I dislike it, pretty much the same when I saw iOS 7. Not a good looking UI IMO. There are some improvements in terms of features that was missing in Kitkat like how long it takes to fully charge the device and some other smaller changes. They combined both apps notification and system settings notification into 1, which I hate it. I wouldn't bother with Lollipop if I knew about the changes. Thankfully only the Nexus devices will see the changes. OEM manufacturers, please don't follow the stock UI!
It's the trend alright. Even iOS 8 and Mac OS Yosemite have the new flat design. I don't think many new or current Android phones will receive Lollipop until late Q1 or early Q2 2015. What about the battery saving mode? Is that useful?
I don't know. I seldom drain it that much, plus every OEM already has that battery saving mode. Most Android phones not running on Lollipop are already receiving apps built on the flat design. They are not losing much at all TBH.
That's what I thought - most of us try not to let the phone drain until the last bit. Then again, in the past year, I have had three occasions where my 3 year old iPhone 4S drained below the last 10%. So I think it would be useful as the battery ages and their capacity drops. They also claim that Lollipop will allow developers to better track and monitor their app power consumption so they can keep it down. Theoretically, that should lead to lower power consumption in future apps.
Like I say all the time, nothing beats having a phone with bigger battery, unless there's some miracle in regards to battery technology. Haha. Luckily some manufacturers are still doing that, Like Motorola and Sony. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Yeah, but as you know, the trend is for phones to get thinner, not to get bigger batteries. LOL! Seriously, it's like a (crazy) bragging contest - My new model is the thinnest phone ever! - This is 34% thinner than last year's model! - Our phone is thinner than our rival's!
I'm not currently planning to update my Nexus 7 2012 to Lollipop. I read the Ars Technica article which showed that it only slows the tablet down (even if a little), and coupled with potential compatibility problems (which happen with every major OS upgrade) I feel like it will hurt more than help.
Did you see any improvement by going to 5.0? From the comments at Ars, ART isn't enabled for the Nexus 7 2012, so there's no performance or battery benefits from that. Is is enabled for the 2013 version?
I was already using ART back in Kitkat, but it was an option which I didn't hesitate to change knowing the advantages. Although Nexus 7 2013 is not new today, but it still performs surprisingly well. So the only improvements that I can see is the UI changes. I didn't like all the changes. I don't like how they combined the notification and the setting bars together.
I heard that Nokia's new tablet has an Android 5.0 inside. They might be experimenting on something very new again.
That's because Microsoft has officially taken over the mobile division of Nokia, which excludes the tablet. So they are free to release any tablet which is not Microsoft based. And it is only restricted for 18 months(unsure). After that, they can release Android phones too.