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Google’s Android update schedule can be sporadic to say the least, but it has improved drastically over the past couple of years thanks to a couple of pilot programs that Google gives to developers and device manufacturers alike. Google may have just announced Android M, with a developer preview that you can flash on any recent Nexus device, but its widespread availability won’t be until Q3 of this year. Until that happens we’re looking at Android 5.1.1 as the latest version of Google’s OS with almost no phones actually using this version to date. Owners of the most recent devices available, such as the Galaxy Note 4, maybe be wondering when they could expect to receive Google’s latest OS, and thankfully we may have the information you are looking for.
Samsung’s update game has improved along with Google’s and you’ll often find their devices rocking the latest version of Android just a few months after the official code release. Given how many phones Samsung has and how many markets they have to support this update schedule can be a bit demanding, especially when well tested updates still have game breaking bugs when being rolled out. According to SamMobile’s insiders the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update for the Galaxy Note 4 has officially entered the beta testing phase and is currently scheduled to be rolled out by the end of July. Android 5.1 brought with it a ton of under-the-hood changes including smoother animations, more Material Design guidelines and a slew of new fairly minor features. Many of these may be negated by Samsung’s TouchWiz UI but things like the additional animations and the like could be kept.
Alongside the general improvements and stability that Google brought to Android with 5.1 Samsung will likely be bringing some new updates to its camera software. Among some general image quality improvements this new camera software features a live exposure adjustment slider next to the focus ring, a feature we’ve seen on Xiaomi’s phones since the Mi4 last year. This allows users to tap anywhere to focus then drag the slider that appears next to the ring for easy exposure settings. Smartphones tend to overexpose the shot a bit, especially in harsh lighting conditions, so it’s great to have such easy manual exposure settings at the touch of your finger. We’ll bring you more about the update as it develops.