It is better late than never, or so the users of the mid-range phablet HTC Desire 816 from the Taiwanese tech company say when the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop finally rolled out to their devices this month.
Six months after the official global roll out of the Android 5.0 Lollipop, the HTC Desire 816, along with the HTC Desire Eye, got the mobile operating system in April 15, which was an upgrade from the Android 4.4.2 KitKat that the two devices came out with upon its launch last year, notes the GSM Arena.
Consequently, it took another four months for the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop to make its way to the HTC Desire smartphones and it is likely that when the Android M is released in a few months time, the devices would no longer be able to take on the firmware updates.
When the Android 5.0 Lollipop rolled out to the HTC Desire 816, it came with new features and performance improvements but lacks the latest Sense 7 UI. It bumped the Sense 6.5 version, but the 7.0 launcher might be rolled out at a later date and will probably come with the Android 5.1 Lollipop. However, it looks like the smartphone will no longer get the firmware update.
It was only in April that saw HTC bringing along the Android 5.0 Lollipop to its smartphone lines, around the time when it launched its latest flagship smartphone this year, the HTC One M9, that came out with Android 5.0.2 Lollipop onboard.
The first HTC smartphones to upgrade to Android 5.0 Lollipop in April were the HTC One M8, the HTC One, the HTC Desire E8 and the HTC Butterfly S before it finally made its way to the HTC Desire 816 and the HTC Desire Eye.
The UK first, India next
After the rollout of the Android 5.0 Lollipop to HTC smartphones in the UK, the firmware update eventually came to the smartphones of the Taiwanese tech company in India about a month later.
According to NDTV Gadgets, the Android 5.0 Lollipop made it to four HTC smartphones in India including the HTC Desire 816, the HTC Desire Eye, the HTC One E8 and the HTC One Dual SIM.
When the software was released, HTC India advised owners of HTC Desire 816, HTC Desire Eye, HTC One (E8), and HTC One Dual SIM to manually check for the update by going to the Settings of their phones as there is no official changelog for the update at that time.
Apart from bringing along the Material Design that the Lollipop boasted of as early as last year, the Android 5.0 Lollipop includes a new lock screen and notification tray along with enhanced privacy features, improvement in search functions, and support for multiple pages in recent apps.
Sellable in many countries
When HTC launched its mid-range phablet, the HTC Desire 816, last year, it was primarily meant for the Chinese market considering its affordability, given its $200 price range.
Notwithstanding the smartphone’s specifications and features vis-à-vis its price, the HTC Desire 816 undoubtedly offered one of the premium smartphone deals in China last year.
With the warm reception of the phablet in the Chinese market, HTC was convinced of the device’s sales potentials in other countries where the Taiwanese smartphone maker has a presence too.
True enough, when HTC took the HTC Desire 816 to the retail markets in other countries, particularly in Europe, it generated a positive response that the Taiwanese tech company was actually overwhelmed by its sales results.
Although the Taiwanese tech company will not be officially rolling out the Android 5.1 Lollipop firmware update to HTC Desire 816 anytime soon, users of the widely-lauded mid-range handset now have the option to do so through the Android open source project, the CyanogenMod 12 ROM.