For Android users, an update to Google’s mobile operating system can be maddening. Unlike Apple iOS updates, new versions of Android are not simply posted online for on-demand downloading. Instead, users typically have to wait until the upgrade is pushed to their phone or tablet. This is because Android is a more open environment than iOS, with different devices made by different manufacturers and, in the case of phones, controlled by different carriers. Many of these devices run modified versions of Android, so when a new release comes out, it has to be tweaked, tested and delivered model by model. It can take a while, and some devices, because of age or other complications, don’t get the update at all.
Indeed, while the latest version of the OS, known as Android 5 or “Lollipop,” began appearing late last year, by March 2015, just over 3 percent of Android users were running it, according to Google’s data. So when Lollipop 5.0.2 recently arrived on my two devices—a 2013 Google Nexus 7 tablet and a 2014 Nvidia Shield tablet—I jumped at it. (A still newer version, 5.1, had not arrived by press time.) Long story short: Lollipop is worth the wait.
