Whoa! Samsung just started rolling out Android 5.0 Lollipop (LRX21T) update to the Galaxy S5 (SM-G900F). This is the first time the Korean giant has delivered a major Android software upgrade in such a short period of time, only 31 days – Google dropped final Lollipop code to AOSP on November 4th. Currently, the new software upgrade is only available in Poland, however, it should start appearing in other European countries shortly. As of this moment, we aren’t aware of an exact Lollipop release date for the U.S. Galaxy S5 variants because of the usual carrier certification, which usually slows down the roll-out process.
Android 5.0 Lollipop brings in a plethora of features and enhancements to the Galaxy S5, the biggest change being the user interface. With Lollipop, Google introduced Material Design which makes UI elements alive and natural to touch; in simpler words, every UI element has an animation, and it looks amazing! Material Design brought new design guidelines, which required Samsung to develop all of its proprietary system applications from scratch, and they now look much, much better than before – thanks, Google! Samsung’s own applications now come with coloured status bar, new font, and a material-design inspired look. Also, Samsung has finally ditched the good old blue theme, which it had been using since the Galaxy S2, for a brand new white dye.
In terms of features, Android 5.0 brings a brand new lockscreen with notifications support, tap & go, priority mode, heads-up notifications, Smart Lock, MirrorLink, and more. Moreover, Samsung has built in a handy clipboard tool which keeps a history of your screenshots and copied text, the Korean giant has ported Galaxy Note 4′s fingerprint lock screen to the Galaxy S5, and has also updated the fingerprint driver itself, which has drastically improved fingerprint recognition.
Performance-wise, this is the most lag-free and speedy software Samsung has developed for a smartphone to date, period. This mainly could be due to the new ART runtime, or Samsung actually did optimise its software for the first time ever. Whatever it is, it’s fast, and we only care about it being just that.