Android 6.0 Marshmallow introduced many improvements and refinements to Android, including significant improvements in power management through App Standby and Doze, changes to the application permission setup, which allow customers much more granular control over what permissions individual applications are granted. There are many changes under the skin of the updated software and it has taken device manufacturers some time to update their devices. We have seen some headline devices receive their updates after a long period of testing, including a number of Samsung Galaxy devices – the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge received the software, followed more recently by the Samsung Galaxy Note 5, Samsung’s late 2015 flagship device. Customers in Cambodia were amongst the first to receive the update on the SM-N920C device, but unfortunately it appears that despite the extensive testing period, Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow is a far from perfect experience on the Note 5.
The source website has reported that many readers are experiencing battery drain issues following the update to Android Marshmallow. This is especially disconcerting given that battery life is not only an area of focus for Google with the update to Marshmallow, but also it is something that is obvious to customers after the update so may not have been showing in the test devices. Or worse, it was ignored by Samsung’s product managers but more on this later. Another issue that’s been reported is the Samsung Gear VR has stopped working on Android 6.0.1; again, surely Samsung would have tested their own products with the software update? There are an undisclosed number of other minor bugs being reported with the update too.
At the time of writing, the software rollout has not been stopped, so there is another theory as to what is happening with the update: it is possible that Samsung are aware of the issues with the Note 5 running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and are treating Cambodia market as a testing market. Perhaps Samsung’s software engineers need more data and are so releasing the update to this market in order to gather data? So far, we’ve no word from Samsung as to their immediate plans for the software update; there may be a patch about to be released in the next few days, so if you have already updated your device, be sure to install any new software updates as they arrive.