With Android 4.4 KitKat Google introduced a number of fairly minor user interface changes that actually had a pretty big effect on the overall look and feel of Android itself. As is the norm manufacturers must modify this look a bit to make it their own, but seeing as how Google is now beginning to mandate things like transparent notification bars and grey icons, the massive gulf between the way a pure Google device looks and the way a device from another manufacturer looks is getting smaller. Case in point the lockscreen of the upcoming D6503 Sirius from Sony, which is assumed to be the Xperia Z2. This device will be Sony’s first Android 4.4 KitKat powered device and along with that comes some significant UI changes as well as just a few minor tweaks in other places. While many take the lockscreen for granted there are a lot of different ones out there and they tend to function a little differently.
Sony has been using a more minimal lockscreen for a while now, and while that overall look and feel doesn’t change with the Sirius, there are a few additions to be found. The most obvious one off the bat is going to be lockscreen music scrubbing, which allows a user to move through a song via its timeline all without having to leave the lockscreen. This was a feature introduced with KitKat and has been slightly modified by Sony here. Scrubbing has to be activated by long-pressing one of the skip buttons, so don’t worry about accidentally moving through your song while you dance. Also worth noting is the camera icon now being present at the bottom of the screen reminding users that they can access the camera straight from the lockscreen.
Two things don’t seem to be present in this latest leak from user iRimas unfortunately. First is full-screen album art on the lockscreen, which is a prominent KitKat visual feature. It’s possible that the Walkman app simply doesn’t support this feature yet and Sony is building it into the app, but for now it appears to be missing. Also unfortunately missing is ART, which is the new super fast runtime that Google introduced in Android 4.4 KitKat that has had power users salivating from the start. Again while it’s possible that Sony could still build this into their newest flagship it won’t be the first time we’ve seen an OEM take ART out of the picture, which is a real shame given the performance increases that can be seen in some apps while using ART. Sony’s newest flagship phone is turning out to be a real stunner in many ways, including that new camera and the overall hardware in general. It’s looking more and more like Sony will be announcing the D6503 Sirius at Mobile World Congress on February 24th, so stick here and we’ll keep you in the loop.
