Android 4.4.1 will fix Nexus 5's camera, Google promises
Android 4.4 KitKat will get its first update in the next few days, Google has promised, with the main focus the Nexus 5's disappointing camera.
Android 4.4 KitKat will get its first update in the next few days, Google has promised, with Android 4.4.1 principally improving the camera software on the company's otherwise superb Nexus 5 superphone.
The update makes the camera quicker to open, faster to autofocus and less susceptible to motion blur. "You fix the motion blur," Google's director of engineering for Android, Dave Burke, told The Verge, "and make everything faster."
KitKat is slowly making its way onto more devices, with most Nexus gadgets having begun to receive the update. Google's latest stats show the new software is on 1.1 per cent of all devices -- still less than the ancient Froyo.
HTC promises the One will be updated next month, and leaks from Samsung suggest its flagship phones will be feeling the KitKat love sometime early in the new year too.
The Nexus 5 is absolute ripsnorter of a phone -- one of the best of the year, certainly -- improving on last year's wonderful Nexus 4 with 4G, a glorious Full HD screen and a staggeringly powerful processor. For £299 direct from Google, it's a glorious bargain. With supplies having stabilised, order one today and it should arrive before Christmas.
Apart from its lack of expandable storage (itself mitigated by the 32GB version being only £40 more), the Nexus 5's only disappointment was its camera. Compared to the staggeringly high-res Nokia Lumia 1020 and Sony Xperia Z1, its 8 megapixels leave some detail unrecorded. It often overexposes in bright conditions, and in low light failed to focus on faces and produced noisy pics.
Hopefully some of these issues will be ironed out by the forthcoming update, which also promises to make settings easier to find and to give the HDR mode a progress bar.
How have you found the Nexus 5? Are you glad Google is fixing the camera, or should they focus on getting KitKat on more devices? Shoot me a comment below, or over on our quickfire Facebook page.
