When you buy a Nexus product or a Google Play Edition device, you do so because you want a device that will come with the latest Android operating system, unlocked and running pure vanilla Android and hopefully receive timely updates. Everybody is so excited about getting their Android 5.0 Lollipop update and that includes owners of the HTC One M7 and HTC One M8 Google Play Editions. They were supposed to have received it at the beginning of this week, but it looks like word from Mo Versi, HTC VP of Product Management’s tweet today, that the update “got delayed” and it is looking like a Friday update – he made it quite clear that HTC is “working aggressively to get it out as quickly as possible.”
The HTC One M8 GPe cost $699 and was available in April, giving you access to an unlocked and mostly unadulterated version of Android 4.4 KitKat. It came with a 5-inch 1080p display, 2600mAh battery, BoomSound speakers, main camera has 4MP (UltraPixels) and a 5MP front-facing camera (FFC) for selfies and video chatting. HTC claims that the Duo Camera will still work – supposedly, the camera app itself is stock Google, but when you enter the Photo app, it will prompt you to open up “HTC Photo Edit.” You may have a few less options, but the main functions are available.
Motion Launch is still fairly useful – you can double-tap to wake up the device, pressing the volume button and lift the phone to activate the camera, and you can still swipe the screen in any direction to unlock it…you only lose the swiping in different directions to perform certain tasks. The popular Dot View case also works, but you just don’t have full functionality. It will be interesting to see if you will gain or lose any functions with 5.0. We are hoping that HTC is able to deliver your Lollipop this Friday, but better that you get a great working OS than one with bugs. Please hit us up to on our Google+ Page and let us know if you have an HTC One M7 or M8 GPE and are waiting for the Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade…as always, we would love to hear from you. Let us know after you get your upgrade how smooth everything went and how happy you are.