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South Korean owners of the LG G3 smartphone will be receiving Android 5.0 this week, LG said on Sunday.
In a blog post written in Korean, the mobile device maker said that all three of the mobile carriers in Korea — SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus — will launch the update at the same time. The update itself will be available as a direct download from the LG Mobile website for the first one or two weeks. The mobile carriers will then offer the update over the air so that it will automatically install on users’ phones.
LG initially pushed out Android 5.0 to Poland two weeks ago as a test. The launch in Korea, however, means that the update is another step closer to reaching the rest of the world. Which regions are next on LG’s Android update list?
LG spokeswoman Claire Jang told CNET on November 11 that Korean G3 owners would get the upgrade this month “followed by other markets including Europe and North America subsequently.” But she cautioned that “time frames for the upgrade can be varied and also changeable as per region, country, as well as the carrier, so the specific period can hardly be confirmed at this moment.”
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Mobile device makers have been racing to roll out Lollipop after Google officially kicked off the latest version of its mobile operating system earlier this month. But as with any Android update, the process can take awhile as manufacturers have to test and prep the software, and gear it for specific devices.
Motorola already began deploying Android 5.0 for its Moto X and Moto G phones earlier this month. Google itself has been aiming the update at its existing Nexus devices, such as the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 smartphones and the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets. A Google representative told CNET this month that “Lollipop will begin rolling out to Nexus devices in November,” which means the rollout must start this week to meet that goal.
Android 5.0 offers several enhancements over its predecessors. Chief among them is a new look known as Material design, which brings animation, richer colors and other effects to the screen. Notifications now appear on the lock screen, and new menu called Overview shows running apps as a stack of cards. Also, a new Battery Saver mode drills down the CPU and turns off background data when a device is running low on power.
