Android 5.0 Lollipop: Performance and battery life tested

[Scorpus]

Google released Android 5.0 ‘Lollipop’ last November, a major milestone in the life of today's most popular mobile operating system. Like with most Android revisions, the update was pushed to Nexus devices and all was well in the vanilla Android camp. But again, like with every major Android software update, those without a Nexus device have had to anxiously wait for new software to hit their phone.

Contrast this to iOS or Windows Phone, both of which come with fast upgrade pathways, and Android’s update rollout scheme seems severely outdated and frustrating for users.

However this article isn’t meant to expose how awful the Android upgrade system is, because frankly, everyone knows this already. Instead, I'm seeking to explore how updates to the core architecture in Android 5.0 have improved performance and battery life on existing handsets. For that, I needed to wait until official updates hit for some of the leading devices out there, something that took a lot of patience.

Read the complete article.

 

[OortCloud]

So from this article I glean that.....
Android 4.4 was a slow, clunky abomination of an OS, and Android 5 - if your device is ever 'lucky' enough to get upgraded is likely to be equally slow and just as clunky and generally nasty as ever. Can't wait.
Actually while I'm ranting I think Android should be stripped of its OS status and be given a more appropriate name like 'toy'. OK rant over.

 

[Arris]

So from this article I glean that.....
Android 4.4 was a slow, clunky abomination of an OS, and Android 5 - if your device is ever 'lucky' enough to get upgraded is likely to be equally slow and just as clunky and generally nasty as ever. Can't wait.
Actually while I'm ranting I think Android should be stripped of its OS status and be given a more appropriate name like 'toy'. OK rant over.

I've had 5 Android phones with versions from 2.6 onwards. None of them have been slow, clunky abominations. I don't think the article puts that forward as an opinion either.

 

[ET3D]

Thanks for the roundup. Any chance you have some data on storage performance? I compared my Nexus 7 2012 KitKat to someone else's Lollipop and the Lollipop storage score was lower in Antutu. Can't tell if the difference is because of different machines or the OS.

 

[DaveBG]

I prefer 4.4 ... Lollipop is stearing in the wrong direction ...

 

[Puiu]

I didn't expect it to be this close.

 

[ET3D]

So from this article I glean that.....
Android 4.4 was a slow, clunky abomination of an OS, and Android 5 - if your device is ever 'lucky' enough to get upgraded is likely to be equally slow and just as clunky and generally nasty as ever. Can't wait.
Actually while I'm ranting I think Android should be stripped of its OS status and be given a more appropriate name like 'toy'. OK rant over.

Yes, we all know iOS is better, but Android will get there, don't worry.

 

[Badelhas]

Great article, thanks!
I really hope developers can improve their apps and make them more efficient regarding performance and battery.
One question, though: Did you do a factory reset after the OTA update?

 

[JakeT]

So from this article I glean that.....
Android 4.4 was a slow, clunky abomination of an OS, and Android 5 - if your device is ever 'lucky' enough to get upgraded is likely to be equally slow and just as clunky and generally nasty as ever. Can't wait.
Actually while I'm ranting I think Android should be stripped of its OS status and be given a more appropriate name like 'toy'. OK rant over.

I've had 5 Android phones with versions from 2.6 onwards. None of them have been slow, clunky abominations. I don't think the article puts that forward as an opinion either.

He owns an iphone.

 

[JakeT]

I have a Nexus 4 and my gf a Nexus 5. We both upgraded the OS and we're both back to Kitkat .4.4.4. I do notice a slight battery drain from coming back to KK but it's something I am already used to. I plug my phone automatically when I come home from work. I'll wait until my next phone to try out Lollipop again. My gf is so disappointed with Lollipop that she's thinking of buying an iphone now. Her Nexus5 keeps making a clicking sound every time it comes out of sleep mode. It makes her Nexus5 sound like some cheap copy from China.

 

[Kibaruk]

I expected a lot from their claims, hopefuly it will get better.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

So from this article I glean that.....
Android 4.4 was a slow, clunky abomination of an OS, and Android 5 - if your device is ever 'lucky' enough to get upgraded is likely to be equally slow and just as clunky and generally nasty as ever. Can't wait.
Actually while I'm ranting I think Android should be stripped of its OS status and be given a more appropriate name like 'toy'. OK rant over.

Yes, we all know iOS is better, but Android will get there, don't worry.

We do? They will? Unfortunately most of us don't live in a fantasy world but it would be nice.

 

[Guest]

The benchmark methodology used was seriously flawed. In day to day use the S5 and many other phones see a vastly decreased battery life on Lollipop than they do under Kitkat. Continuous tests, ie keep going till it dies is never and has never been an accurate measure of true battery life. Seriously shoddy and flawed article.

 

[Kibaruk]

Continuous tests, ie keep going till it dies is never and has never been an accurate measure of true battery life. Seriously shoddy and flawed article.

Ok so please I bet the author of the article is eager to hear whatever you will propose, that can be actually measured and used with statistics, because I doubt "I whatsapped 50 times before it died after 10 hours" is not a very scientific method of testing. Of course it depends on HUGE amounts of factors, how well refrigerated or heated the phone is, the overall quality and actual life of the battery, how close/far away you are from cellphone antenas, do you have good coverage or the phone is struggling to keep an active connections.

All those things impact in a huge way, but... there is no scientific method to test it all out, so unless you have a solution don't come throwing **** on the fan, thanks!

 

[hitech0101]

I have lollipop on moto g 2013. Did not notice any battery life improvement, performance maybe a tad bit better considering more free ram is available. The notifications are better and a few new features are still good. But why did google get rid of auto feature on brightness of screen is still a mystery the new adaptive brightness is no where near effective.

 

[VitalyT]

Kind of a late review, given that Android 5.1 was released like a month ago...

 

[Guest]

Am I missing something here?
The article refers to "increases of roughly 5 % on most devices....
Yet the graphs indicate the opposite
Are the color codes on graphs reversed???
b/c 4.4.4 wins the majority here

 

[hahahanoobs]

Kind of a late review, given that Android 5.1 was released like a month ago...

"...I needed to wait until official updates hit for some of the leading devices out there, something that took a lot of patience."

 

[Anaron]

Kind of a late review, given that Android 5.1 was released like a month ago...

Android 5.1 hasn't been announced yet and so far, only Android One devices have it.

 

[VitalyT]

Android 5.1 hasn't been announced yet and so far, only Android One devices have it.

It hasn't been announced, but it has been released to certain phones unofficially about a month ago. I don't know what is going on with Android's PR these days.

 

[Scorpus]

The benchmark methodology used was seriously flawed. In day to day use the S5 and many other phones see a vastly decreased battery life on Lollipop than they do under Kitkat. Continuous tests, ie keep going till it dies is never and has never been an accurate measure of true battery life. Seriously shoddy and flawed article.

I have heard some people say that performance and battery life decreases after the update to Android 5.0.

However I performed a factory reset on all devices before testing Android 4.4, then again after upgrading to Android 5.0. This provides for a clean comparison between the two operating systems, rather than having to deal with any side effects produced by upgrade issues.

The benchmark methodology used was seriously flawed. In day to day use the S5 and many other phones see a vastly decreased battery life on Lollipop than they do under Kitkat. Continuous tests, ie keep going till it dies is never and has never been an accurate measure of true battery life. Seriously shoddy and flawed article.

Measuring 'true' battery life is tricky because everyone's usage is different. These tests are meant to be a comparison between devices, not to your general usage. The video playback test, for example, shows how long your smartphone will last relative to others, and how much power is consumed by the display (primarily).

At this stage there isn't a benchmark around that reflects actual day to day usage. Most of the time your phone is off and in standby, and benchmarking that is difficult and extremely time consuming. For now, the benchmarks I run will do.

Thanks for the roundup. Any chance you have some data on storage performance? I compared my Nexus 7 2012 KitKat to someone else's Lollipop and the Lollipop storage score was lower in Antutu. Can't tell if the difference is because of different machines or the OS.

AnTuTu is a strange benchmark that in my testing has produced inconsistent results, and favors storage too much in final scores (hence why I don't test with it). I wouldn't read into it too much. I did a preliminary storage test on one of the smartphones I had and saw no change to storage performance, which is expected.

 

[ET3D]

Yes, we all know iOS is better, but Android will get there, don't worry.

We do? They will? Unfortunately most of us don't live in a fantasy world but it would be nice.

I apologise for the troll. It was more an attempt to coax more from him but it got you. Sorry. I'm not a hater of any platform, but my main platform is Android (which my other post should have hinted at).

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I apologise for the troll. It was more an attempt to coax more from him but it got you. Sorry. I'm not a hater of any platform, but my main platform is Android (which my other post should have hinted at).

I was just teasing you. It's nobody's concern which platforms you love or hate, each to their own. When it come to Apple I'm the worlds biggest troll I like their products (y) but hate the company(n)

 

[OortCloud]

I was just teasing you. It's nobody's concern which platforms you love or hate, each to their own. When it come to Apple I'm the worlds biggest troll I like their products (y) but hate the company(n)

Sorry I was ranting a bit! My phone is actually a Galaxy S3 and I have 2 tablets - one Android and one Win 8.1 I have no Apple devices - like you I hate their business practices - although my wife has an iPad which she loves. If I had to pick an OS for a tablet I'd go for Windows 8.1 every time and still Android on a phone as its the best of a bad bunch. (and 7 on desktop). I just wish that on a phone there was a better alternative....

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Sorry I was ranting a bit! My phone is actually a Galaxy S3 and I have 2 tablets - one Android and one Win 8.1 I have no Apple devices - like you I hate their business practices - although my wife has an iPad which she loves. If I had to pick an OS for a tablet I'd go for Windows 8.1 every time and still Android on a phone as its the best of a bad bunch. (and 7 on desktop). I just wish that on a phone there was a better alternative....

We'll wait and see what Win 10 brings to the party. Android is not without it's faults but at the moment it's by far the best mobile phone OS.