The latest version of Android, 5.0 Lollipop, has already been shown on Samsung’s Galaxy S5 and Galaxy S4. And while it seems that the time when all of the company’s devices will receive the update is still a while off, users of the Galaxy Note 4 just got a hopeful new teaser today – a video showing the latest version of Android running on their device.
This is not an official announcement by Samsung, and it’s actually the same deal as the preview for the S4 and S5 – it’s the same type of ROM, and users who’ve seen the previous announcements will find this one very similar, with only some very minor differences. Still, it’s encouraging to see that the new operating system is being supported across a wider and wider range of devices, and according to people close to the development scene for Android, more Samsung devices are expected to get ROMs for Android 5.0.
Meanwhile, Samsung have been quiet on the issue. It’s not yet known whether owners of the Galaxy Note 4 will get to use the new version of Android officially, but there have been several leaks from the company already, showing what the new update will look like after it’s passed through Samsung’s own modification procedures.
That’s the problem with updates on Samsung devices – the company doesn’t want to just release the standard Android 5.0, they want to make custom modifications to the operating system that match its own design philosophies. In the past, Samsung have been criticized for this, as some users are claiming that the company “bloats” their operating system too much, adding a lot of unnecessary software which in some cases is also difficult to remove.
On the other hand, it’s noticeable that Samsung have decreased this trend recently, and are not more cautious about adding unnecessary/potentially unwanted apps to their devices. Users who purchase a Samsung smartphone still receive it with various extra apps, however. It’s not known whether the situation will improve in Android 5.0, or if it will actually become worse – but reports indicate that Samsung are actually trying to think about this issue realistically, and want to come up with a solution that will please everyone.
In the meantime, the scene for custom ROMs has been very active, and users who’re interested in getting Android 5.0 on their own devices should get a chance to do that soon enough. Those who don’t have a Note 4 or any other Samsung device that has been previewed with the new version of Android will have to wait a little longer, but it seems that Android 5.0 will be made available for quite a lot of users.