Android Lollipop is a 'train wreck'

[EBUK]

Not my words, but the words of an Android fan. Lollipop is to Android as Vista was to Microsoft...

Speaking in Tech: Android 5.0 Lollipop is a TRAIN WRECK ? The Register and listen to the podcast from 3:47.

 

[worldspy99]

Thanks for sharing. The Register though does have a slight bias in favor of MSFT products though - neutrally speaking.

 

[etad putta]

No, it's not a train wreck. It's a nice solid update as nearly all the reputable reviewers say.

 

[Rod Hull]

Thanks for sharing. The Register though does have a slight bias in favor of MSFT products though - neutrally speaking.

Really? I always find El Reg to be the most platform agnostic of all the tech sites, showing equal disdain for all operating systems and manufacturers (with a soft spot for Linux, natch).

 

[EBUK]

Thanks for sharing. The Register though does have a slight bias in favor of MSFT products though - neutrally speaking.

I think it largely depends on the reviewer / reporter. I'm not a great fan of the register as it often seems to report on things are are not tech-related, but this story caught my attention. Not having tried Android yet I can't say whether I agree with it's assertions. Describing it as Google's Vista seems very harsh!

 

[Steve Adams]

Not my words, but the words of an Android fan. Lollipop is to Android as Vista was to Microsoft...

Speaking in Tech: Android 5.0 Lollipop is a TRAIN WRECK ? The Register and listen to the podcast from 3:47.

Would you expect anything different? They said , ICS, jellybean, Kitkat were all saviours of androids poor user experience. Neither did anything different than the last in terms of polishing the overall experience, maybe even made it worse, more laggy and buggy.

 

[Michael Alan Goff]

Would you expect anything different? They said , ICS, jellybean, Kitkat were all saviours of androids poor user experience. Neither did anything different than the last in terms of polishing the overall experience, maybe even made it worse, more laggy and buggy.

If you truly believe that, you didn't use it yourself.

 

[a5cent]

I just went through the AC lollipop forum, and of the first fifty threads, every last one was a complaint. However, only two of those threads were about the same mail and/or notification related issues that this guy is concerned with. If these really were such train-wreck type problems, I think there would have been more than just two threads on it, and surely they would have contained more than just five or six posts each. I don't think that warrants calling lollipop a train wreck...

What I did find interesting is how the issues lollipop users are reporting seem to be all over the place... slowness, lags, extreme battery drain, daily restarts, requiring daily reboots as to avoid running out of memory due to memory leaks in the OS, crashing apps, lollipop's mail client deleting mails on the server that it shouldn't, loss of gigabytes worth of storage after upgrading and many other issues...

Our update experience with WP8.1 was anything but problem free, then again, we had only one or two well known update related issues per device. I thought we had a really rough time, and although MS shouldn't allow that to happen again, this at least shows it could have been far worse.
Sorry for that slight detour in the second half. Back to lollipop... I say "not a train wreck". Perhaps "arbitrarily buggy" is more appropriate.

 

[Steve Adams]

If you truly believe that, you didn't use it yourself.

I have used every version of android since cupcake. SO YES I DID USE and OWN them myself. My latest device was a note with kitkat. It was horrible to use. and again, nothing changed. still the laggy old android of old. the only difference back in the days of froyo etc was that everything else was slow and laggy to because of hardware, now, its obvious android wants to keep this user experience on their new systems.

 

[Michael Alan Goff]

I have used every version of android since cupcake. SO YES I DID USE and OWN them myself. My latest device was a note with kitkat. It was horrible to use. and again, nothing changed. still the laggy old android of old. the only difference back in the days of froyo etc was that everything else was slow and laggy to because of hardware, now, its obvious android wants to keep this user experience on their new systems.

And Vanilla Android?

 

[flattie]

Meh. Hyperbole and nothing more.

Lollipop is a dot zero release which looked to implement an entirely new design language, hundreds of new APIs, a long list of new native OS enhancements and a new runtime system. That's an ambitious tick sheet for any company to tackle.

Did it come out of the door perfect? God no. There are some questionable design choices, bugs to be squashed and performance niggles that need ironing. It isn't a train wreck, though.

And speaking for myself, I'm all for suffering the odd rough edge if it means seeing the developers being aggressive in moving the platform forward.

 

[matfantastic]

I'm sorry but Lolipop looks incredible. If I hadn't just picked up a One M8 for Windows I would seriously consider switching. In fact I still might...

 

[Rick_Air]

I'm sorry but Lolipop looks incredible. If I hadn't just picked up a One M8 for Windows I would seriously consider switching. In fact I still might...

Yep, first time I've liked the look of an Android os. The design and look of WP7 is what made me choose it as my first smart phone when it was released.
Now, with the lack of any real strong growth of WP and Android looking so nice, it's a very tempting time to switch.

 

[EBUK]

Vista worked well for me on the right hardware. But I saw it grinding to a painful halt on lesser hardware.

I guess it's the same with Lollipop, regardless of what Google and pro-Android sites would have us to believe. I'm ambivalent about it, and couldn't really care one way or the other. If I were an devoted Android user, I might be able to get excited, but as I am loyalty free, I can't muster any enthusiasm.

 

[ven07]

I've personally used Android L (No, I wasn't unfaithful to WP, but I switched phones with a friend for a week lol) and I can honestly say that they are improving The phone simply seems "faster", I do realize that the phone will eventually lag after a period of time, but most phones do. The only gripe I still have with Android is there 18-24 months update system, but most of us don't hang on to a smartphone for two years so.....

 

[TechFreak1]

It is really boils down to a)experience with the device | b)perception | c) the type of user you are

Not everyone will have the same experience, for instance not all Lumia 1520 owners have experienced the scroll / tap issue. My mate who has been using it for a few months now still loves the darn thing. Wouldn't even let me use it for a few minutes just in case I drop it lol... now that tells me he has grown overly fond of it or he / someone almost dropped it as previously he wouldn't mind if I asked him.

Some people perceive windows phone to a basic o/s for simple users just like others perceive that android (regardless of device) is laggier than a hobbling snail.

If you are a techie, you are bound to delve deeper into the O/S, settings & possibly try to root it whereas a basic user will just fiddle with widgets, themes & install a few games & apps.

 

[fdalbor]

Can't say its a train wreck, maybe a derailment. My brother updated his Nexus 10 and it became unuseable, he had to do a factory reset and return it to KitKat just to be able to get a Wifi connection. There were several other features that either did not work or was not to be found. That was over a week ago and he still does not have a update that will fix the problems he had. My own Moto G was not much better, I moved it back to KitKat too. Don't get me wrong both of us never had any trouble with KitKat and we are going to stay there til they work out the problems. Not sure if this is the norm or not.

 

[dameon_03]

There are bound to be software issues with any release. Given the plethora of devices released on Android, I wouldn't expect the rollout to be problem free. Also take into account people use their phones differently.

 

[falconrap]

Having seen L in action a bit here and there one thing I noticed is that, for the most part, the haphazardness of Android is still there. There are some notable changes in parts of the interface, but the biggest difference, from a UI perspective, is the skinning/color schemes. Much nicer to look at, but still has a lot of the UX faux pas that continue to make Android a painful experience for some, such as myself. Now, the whole ART and AOT thing will definitely help the OS be more usable in situations where it struggled before, but there appears to be a host of bugs to go with it, which is not uncommon.

Android is still the tinker's OS. It's best for those who want to set there electric bidet to wash their bottoms at a specific temperature that you can control from work, while piloting a drone remotely to watch cats pounce on mice outside. But, for many, it's still a sensory/information overload situation with the OS. It's why Apple still has a good size market share in the US. Windows is more of type of OS for the power user who's tired of changing and tweaking things all of the time. For someone like me, who still occasionally drives the command prompt, it's an oasis away from complexity without giving up too much capability. My smartphone simplified, if you will. That won't appeal to everyone, especially hard core techies, but each of the three OS' have an audience. I suspect a few years from now we'll see WP around the 20% market share (US) range, along with Apple, and the rest will be Android. For me, I just want my choice to be viable long term. Giving up webOS for the choice of iOS or Android just plain sucks. WP softened that blow some. I don't want to be in that boat again.

 

[L Beezy]

For me, It's far from a "train wreck" I have it installed in my Nexus 10 and I have no problems with it at all. Installed smoothly and actually has increased the battery life of my N10. I like the design of Lollipop, and it seems more stable than KitKat was. The only gripe I have is that it seems the OS is geared more towards phones and not tablets.