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Android 6.0 Marshmallow is still a ways off for many devices that are slated to get it, but manufacturers are getting closer to releasing the upgraded software to their lineup of devices, and one of these manufacturers is Samsung. While there are no confirmed hard dates for the update to Marshmallow for Samsung flagships or other devices likely to move forward, a recently leaked document reveals a possible three-phase update timeframe which also depicted which phones are to get updated to Marshmallow at which times.
Today we seem to be getting a hands-on look at Android 6.0 Marshmallow coming to Samsung devices, with a focus on what will be changing inside of Samsung’s TouchWiz UI skin that sits on top of the Android software, compared to how things look currently on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. It is important to note that this is thought to be an unfinished version of the software, (it’s also on the Galaxy Note 5, although the UI should be the same for the most part across Samsung’s devices that are getting Marshmallow) which means some things could end up changing again before Samsung release it officially to devices. One of the first things you might notice is the change made to the lockscreen, as Samsung have switched out the icons of the camera and the phone button, shifting from more of a frosted glass look to full color icons to represent those two apps. There is also no longer an actual padlock button and instead Samsung has opted to simply state “swipe to unlock” to denote the functionality. Lastly, the clock also seems to have changed and no longer resides in the top left corner, and instead will appear directly in the middle while also sporting a different font.
Another noticeable change is the notification pulldown panel and quick settings menu. With Marshmallow Samsung has transitioned to using a white background instead of the blueish-green consumers have been used to for so long. There are also some subtle yet visible changes to the actual settings menu, with a little more white and thinner bars to separate the menus, along with a more material design style header bar and transparent status bar. Moving away from visual tweaks, it seems Marshmallow will bring about some performance improvements, as it was noted that it came in with a slightly higher benchmark score after the update to Android 6.0. Granted these won’t be sweeping changes, but they should help things feel a little smoother than before. Users will also have access to the updated permissions system in Marshmallow, as well as a more visible RAM management menu, along with light visual tweaks to the UI in a few different apps like Music, File Manager, Calendar, and Clock. There is still more than a few weeks before users can expect to see Android 6.0 hit their devices, but this little rundown should give off a decent idea of what changes are coming.
