Google’s release of Android 5.0 Lollipop contained the most changes between different versions to date. The most obvious is the change to the interface but under the skin, there are considerable differences between Android 4.4 Kit Kat and 5.0 Lollipop. However, 5.0 Lollipop contained several bugs. It has since been updated and the most recent version of Android available at the time of writing is 5.1.1 Lollipop. Version 5.1.1 is mostly a bug fix of 5.1, which itself is something of a bug fix of the previous version, 5.0.2 Lollipop. One of the biggest changes is how Google have significantly improved device performance. Google also improved memory management in 5.1.1 compared with older versions of Android Lollipop. We have seen a number of device manufacturers release 5.1 and more recently 5.1.1 for their device portfolio, such as Samsung releasing Android 5.1.1 for some customer devices in North America. Today’s story is regarding the unsurprising discovery that Samsung are working on an important update for the Galaxy S5. Logically, this is believed to be Android 5.1.1 Lollipop – although this is speculation. Samsung may be working on something else.
The source website implies that Samsung’s engineers had not started to develop the code for 5.1.1 for the Galaxy S5 until the last few days, which might also imply that they had every team member working on the release for the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. If this were the case, it is good news for Galaxy S6 customers, at least until Samsung release their next big thing (and this could be the next generation Galaxy Note 5 or perhaps the Galaxy S7, likely out next spring). If Samsung have only just started working on the code for 5.1.1, it is unlikely to be available any time soon, especially as many Galaxy S6 customers are still waiting for their update to 5.1.1. We are also aware that Samsung is currently testing version 5.1.1 for the Galaxy Note 4.
Samsung have come under some criticism regarding their software update process, which often appears convoluted to the end customer. It is important to remember that for a device purchased via a carrier, there is a significant administration and device management overhead from the carrier: new software versions are subject to testing and sometimes modification, as carriers love to include their own applications and services on a device.