While owners of the LG G3 in other countries have seen the rollout of Android 5.0 for the G3 begin, Australian owners have been patiently waiting. But that patience has paid off with LG advising that the Lollipop update will begin rolling out this Friday.
The update will begin arriving for G3 owners who purchased the retail version of the handset outright, while owners of carrier branded handsets will have to wait for their respective carriers testing processes to be completed. The testing phase allows carriers to ensure that the software is without issues, including that they are capable of making emergency calls and LG expects this to be completed before the end of Feburary.
The status of the update differs on all three Australian carriers according to their respective updates page. Vodafone advises that they are ‘Awaiting software for testing’, Telstra lists the status of the update as ‘A new FW submission is required due to LG-identified issues. Dates TBC.’, while Optus has no information on the Android 5.0 update.
The Lollipop update will bring the new Material Design UI that Google is introducing across all their platforms with a touch of LG. The update also includes improved notifications and security improvements such as device encryption, trusted Bluetooth devices and more. This update also introduces the ART runtime that Google began experimenting with in Kitkat but brought to the mainstream in Android 5.0, LG says ART will make the G3 ‘quicker, more agile and more intuitive’.
To check if your Lollipop update has arrived on Friday, go to Settings > ‘General Tab > Scroll down and select ‘About Phone’ > ‘Update Centre’ > and select ‘Software Updates’. Due to the size of the update, LG recommends you connect to Wi-Fi, and as usual make sure your phone is fully charged or plugged into power before you start.
This update represents one of the first Lollipop updates for ‘big name’ devices in Australia, so we heartily congratulate LG on this feat, and we can’t wait for more.
