Are there any compelling reasons to upgrade KitKat to Lollipop?

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gzt

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Topic # 165549 13-Feb-2015 09:11

Are there any compelling reasons to upgrade KitKat to Lollipop immediately?

If there is nothing to gain except eye candy then I will hold out until a few more bugs are squashed.

What were your reasons to upgrade?

sbiddle

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Reply # 1237030 13-Feb-2015 09:36

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I honestly struggle to now use any pre Lollipop devices because they're now so horrible to use. I don't see any reason why you wouldn't want to upgrade.

Wade

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Reply # 1237065 13-Feb-2015 09:52

I've been running Lollipop since January and am yet to find any bugs worthy of note, to be honest for me 4.4.4 was probably more buggy for me than Lollipop

Features of note are:

Smart lock
Pull down menu -it incorporates all of the "necessary" shortcuts without using third party apps
Interuption Mode
Priority Mode
Notifications

KitKat feels old and tired by comparison, the above features and just the general improvements made my phone feel new again. I have also upgraded my daughters moto g and Lollipop has done wonders with that, it has gone from a great phone that struggles at times to a smooth and snappy feel, for moto g owners not to upgrade they are doing themselves an injustice

I upgraded because of the warm and fuzzies i get from having the latest and greatest form Google :P yes you can run standalone apps to achieve most of the new features and more but i want this baked into the OS, Lollipop achieves this

itxtme

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Reply # 1237094 13-Feb-2015 10:07

It is significantly better - I like the way status notifications are easier to read, and dismiss, settings are easier to get into and smartlock saves me time to waste on youtube videos :)

MikeB4

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Reply # 1237095 13-Feb-2015 10:09

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Because it's there. unless it's a Samsung you will be waiting until the rapture :P

Mike
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Amosnz

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Reply # 1237115 13-Feb-2015 10:25

LP is pretty buggy on my i9100, but its a 3rd party unsupported ROM that's still very much in development so it to be expected.
I find that JB ROMs run best on my device, KK and LP roms both run noticeably slower.

Wade

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Reply # 1237143 13-Feb-2015 11:02

KiwiNZ: Because it's there. unless it's a Samsung you will be waiting until the rapture :P

This being the reason i wont go back to Samsung by choice, HTC and Motorola win my vote for at least trying to keep thing s current and truth be told both are doing quite a good job

ScuL

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Reply # 1237163 13-Feb-2015 11:44

I've switched my Sony Xperia Z1 to CM12 (Lollipop) last week and have found it excellent, the phone is so much quicker than on 4.4.4 KitKat, it's incredible

The only two issues I have encountered so far (but this may be CyanogenMod related) are:
#1 my bluetooth connectivity is intermittent, it will play BT Audio from Spotify to my car stereo for 15 minutes then all of a sudden it stops entirely.
The music controls still function but there is no sound, track titles are displayed on the radio and I can still use the steering controls to change tracks, but no sound.
The only way to resolve this is to switch off the engine and the phone and let them "re-synch" .. very annoying

#2 my phone ends up in a "boot loop" when restarting, it will attempt to boot then fail and try again. The only way to interrupt the boot loop by chance is to attempt to start the recovery mode and then reboot and power up/down randomly. After 20 or so attempts the phone will start again.
Right now my perogative is to never let the phone run out of juice because the hassle of firing it back up is a huge pain.

Gigabit

gzt

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Reply # 1239262 15-Feb-2015 10:46

Thanks for the feedback. The improved notifications and pull down area sound like a winner.

My current wish is ability to call alternative numbers for the same contact direct from the SMS reading area. That would be a bonus.

Stu

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Reply # 1239270 15-Feb-2015 11:04

You can usually call alternative numbers in an SMS app by clicking the contact's image and selecting the number required from the box that opens. Numbers are scrollable if there are many.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

Wade

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Reply # 1239406 15-Feb-2015 15:44

gzt: My current wish is ability to call alternative numbers for the same contact direct from the SMS reading area. That would be a bonus.

I use the new Google Messenger app and can confirm you can dial any number linked to a contact from SMS view

play.google.com/store/messenger

greenbone

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Reply # 1240689 17-Feb-2015 11:20

coming from ios i used voice commands via the inline mic a LOT when driving, biking, at the office desk etc. pretty much had my earphones in for at least 10 hours a day and the phone stayed in my pocket most of the time

moved to android 4 and most of that functionality was lost. definitely felt like a step backwards

but android 5 has addressed a lot of that. you can dial contacts, compose sms and email, start navigation and heaps more without touching a thing. it all works pretty flawlessly too im amazed