LG G3 phone to get lick of Android Lollipop this week
The latest flavor of Google's mobile operating system will start hitting LG's latest flagship phone this week -- albeit in Poland -- with other key regions slated for "the near future."
LG may be the first major smartphone maker to roll out Android 5.0 Lollipop.
The company said Sunday it will start sending out the new version of Google's mobile operating system this week to owners of its latest flagship smartphone, the G3 -- with Poland first on the list.
Why Poland?
An LG representative told CNET that "various factors" play a role "in a smartphone upgrade rollout, including ...market size, carrier relationships and our own local resources. Poland had all the key elements in place for LG to initiate the upgrade in that market first."
LG's schedule may put it ahead of other smartphone makers in the launch of Lollipop.
Even Google, which is typically at the head of the pack for Android updates, has yet to push out the latest version to its existing Nexus devices, including the Nexus 5 smartphone and Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets. Some reports, including one from International Business Times, have suggested that Google intended to push out Lollipop last week, but that the release was postponed to the middle of this week due to a need to fix certain bugs.
A Google representative told CNET last week, "We had said that Lollipop will begin rolling out to Nexus devices in November and that is still the case."
LG didn't reveal exactly when other markets beyond Poland will receive the Lollipop upgrade. The company also said that "additional details related to LG devices will be announced in the near future as the Lollipop upgrade becomes available in local markets."
As a tidbit, sources told blog site TechRadar that G3 owners in the UK should look for Android 5.0 to land around the end of November or beginning of December.
The LG rep told CNET a bit more about the time frame for the launch.
"Korean G3 owners can expect to get the upgrade sometime this month and followed by other markets including Europe and North America subsequently," the rep said. "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."
Android 5.0 offers several tweaks, among them a new aesthetic. Notifications now appear on the lock screen. A new menu called Overview shows running apps as a stack of cards. And a new Battery Saver mode drills down the CPU and turns off background data when a device is running low on juice.
"LG is absolutely committed to giving our customers the best mobile experiences available and bringing Android Lollipop to G3 owners as soon as possible is a top priority," Jong-seok Park, CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications, said in a statement. "The new features and improvements in Android 5.0 will bring a whole new user experience to the G3 and make it even better than it already is."
Updated at 4:25 a.m. PT November 11 with comments from an LG representative.