If You’re Looking For An Honest Review of Android 5.0 Lollipop, You Can’t Miss This

Nexus smartphones should receive the new Google update any day now. And this update is more than just a little streamlining and some minor design changes.

Android represents a major shift in how Google and Android want to see themselves. Android’s website on the update notes how Android “powers your watch, your TV, and even your car.” Android wants to be a new OS like Microsoft Windows – but even bigger.

The first thing to note is the interface and user design. As great as smartphone and tablet interfaces have been in the past, they still frequently feel like a computer interface with touch options enabled rather than a true touchscreen.

The Lollipop aims to change that. No longer do you have to collapse one window to open another one, which you then have to scrabble about with your finger to reopen at a later time. Google’s new “Material Design” philosophy uses layers and animations to bring a new, interactive feel to this medium.

User interface and the design of Android phones after the Lollipop update are important, but what matters is how well the features work now. Lollipop has improved several of its features, including Ring Boost, in order to make its phones more accessible.

Gmail and Google Calendar are much easier to use from a design perspective and from additions made to those apps. You can also now see notifications on your phone when your screen is locked, which means that you do not need to unlock your phone every time your phone makes a noise. A white card will appear with the notification, which makes it more legible.

These new features and the design upgrades are fantastic, but the simplest and best upgrade that the Lollipop gives is how it affects your battery life. Something that comes with Lollipop is Project Volta, which shows how much battery your apps are using, how much longer your battery has left, and enables a power-saving mode which Android has not had before now.

So, what do all of these improvements mean? It represents how Google and Android are looking to become more than just a smartphone. They want your phone to be connected to your car, which is connected to your Google desktop, which is connected to all of your other devices.

Featured photo credit: Android Police via androidpolice.com

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