Nexus owners, rejoice. Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 has started rolling out.
Google's Android team announced Wednesday that Android Lollipop started hitting the airwaves and would soon be available on most Nexus devices. The firmware release covers both models of the Nexus 7 tablet.Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean that if you own any of the above-mentioned devices that you will receive Android 5.0 Lollipop immediately. In fact, over-the-air rollouts can often take some time to land on their respective devices. This is due to the fact that they are pushed out in batches in no particular order with no particular logic behind them. There's no way to tell when your Nexus device will be able to download Android 5.0 Lollipop, although it shouldn't be long.
The release of Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 make the Nexus lineup the second out of the gate. Motorola beat Google to its own punch by releasing Lollipop for the second-generation Moto G and the Moto X Pure edition by just hours.
For those who aren't interested in waiting around for Android 5.0 over the air, there are always factory images. Google has already released these files for all the Nexus devices, meaning that owners can go ahead and manually flash their smartphones or tablets up to Android 5.0. Keep in mind that these factory images are for the listed Nexus devices only, and that they do require some maneuvering. Windows users can find a nice guide on how to install the Android 5.0 factory images over at CNET.
So what does Android 5.0 Lollipop bring to the table? The most glaring and obvious change users will notice is the aesthetic. Thanks to the new Material Design layout, Android 5.0 is slicker and more visually pleasing than ever. There are also improved notifications features, a new run-time engine, and tweaks that help the battery life.
Android 5.0 Lollipop should soon be landing on other devices that run stock or near-stock Android. These include Google Play editions of popular flagship smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8. Owners of other devices, however, will have to wait longer. This is because OEMs like Samsung, HTC and Sony take extra time to layer their own interfaces on top of the Android source code. If those devices are tied to carriers, it takes even longer, as networks often add their own bloatware to the process.
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