Android’s biggest update the 5.0.1 aka Lollipop began rolling out in December 2014 starting from the Nexus.
The Pros.
The most important and noticeable change is the new User Interface courtesy of Android’s material design. The colour scheme is easy on the eyes and the UX (User Experience) is has a more functional design. Also, the newer animation features make apps more exciting to use. The unfortunate thing is that these changes are only present in apps that have decided to implement them.
Another thing that comes in handy is the new notification system in Android 5. When a notification comes in, a card pops up on the top of the screen which can either be ignored, tapped to open up the app or swiped to remove. This saves the user the drudgery of having to swipe down the notification bar and clicking the notification.
Another handy feature is the way notifications display on the lockscreen. Notifications are arranged on the lockscreen horizontally. Swiping vertically on one expands all the notifications on the screen where they can be accessed with a tap. Swiping horizontally clears the notification.
The Cons.
As Android 5.0.1 is the first installment of Lollipop, it is expected to have a few bugs. But even beyond the bugs which are more than expected, there are some features which Google promised that are not in this update.
One of the first problems is wifi connectivity. Most times, the phone does not connect to wifi network no matter what. Most times, only a reboot will do for the phone to connect to a network – whether it is a new network or not. In rare cases, only a switch to a different frequency band will do the trick.
Another issue is how apps restart in the background. For example, when I use Samsung’s Watch On to control my television, it stays in the notification bar as a persistent notification. In Kit Kat, I perform a force close to get out of the app. But when I do that in Lollipop, the app restarts again on its own. In Lollipop, apps that are not supposed to persistently run in the background seem to do that all the time.
As if apps restarting in the background was not bad enough, apps on a device running the Android Lollipop keep crashing. This is regardless on whether the app has been updated by the app developer to be compatible with Android Lollipop. It is also a widespread issue judging by comments on forums.
Apart from apps crashing, the update tends to make devices freeze from time to time. Pulling down the notification bar to tap an item usually ends up taking a minute or so.
The update removes some essential features for users. There is no silent mode option anymore, users can only switch between sound mode and vibrate. Also, the blocking mode feature unique to Samsung phones is no more available. Blocking Mode was a feature that allowed the phone user to block particular phone numbers, all numbers or all numbers except few in a whitelist. Also, other devices report that there is no Power options when the Power button is long pressed.
Also switching from one app to another is not smooth anymore. When one is using an app and switches to another without pressing the Home button, the back button is meant to take the user to the previous app. This is not always the case in Android L as the back button only closes the current app and takes the user to Home.
A bigger issue when it comes to problems with apps is that some apps simply don’t work. An example is the app Llama which triggers specific actions when conditions are met. After the upgrade to Android 5, Llama does not work at all and it seems there is nothing I can do about it. I programmed Llama to turn off my mobile data between 2am and 6am everyday but neither that event nor any other one executes. The same for a feature on Nova Launcher where swiping down on my home screen brings down the notification bar. These are the only two apps I am aware of at the moment, and there are probably more.
Failed Promises.
In addition to the bugs, there are promises of new features or improvements that Android Lollipop totally failed to deliver on.
The feature I was looking forward to the most was the mini call notification feature. With this feature, calls do not take up the whole screen of the device while the device is ringing. This allows for a user to continue using an app if he/she intends to ignore the call. This feature is nowhere on the upgrade.
Another promise was a longer battery life. Google promised that the update has a battery saver feature which extends device use by up to 90 minutes. But if anything, the new update drains batteries faster.
Google also promised that ‘OK Google’ will work from anywhere on the device even with the screen off. This currently does not work.
With the introduction of ART – an entirely new Android runtime which should improve application performance and responsiveness; up to 4x performance improvements; smoother UI for complex, visually rich applications; and compacting backgrounded apps and services so you can do more at once – Android 5 should have been faster but instead it is slow, laggy and keeps crashing.
Conclusion.
While it seems that the bad sides outweigh the good, it is not exactly that way. The UI features mentioned in the pros are actually a real breath of fresh air – definitely the most beautiful interface in mobile, for me. The bugs mentioned are very characteristic of initial release. When iOS 8 was released, there was a bug for some users that prevented them from getting access to cellular networks. The bugs in Android Lollipop pale in comparison to that.
The bugs are going to be fixed in the next update and already, news indicate that Android 5.1 is ready for release, showing that the Google team has not been laid back at all. Android One phones in Indonesia have already received the update with new improvements that we will address in another blog post.
However, I will recommend that Android users skip Android 5.0.1 and wait for the maintenance release which should be Android 5.1 (or maybe Android 5.0.2).
