LG G Pad Lollipop Update

LG seems to be buoyed by the success of its G3 flagship smartphone this year and has rewarded its customers with an early Android 5.0 Lollipop update. LG was one of the slowest Android OEMs to release software updates in the past, but it looks like the company is finally getting serious about releasing Android updates in the quickest possible time. After its G3 flagship smartphone, it is now the turn of G Pad 8.3 Google Play Edition tablet to receive the Android Lollipop update. The G3 is one of the first non-Nexus smartphones getting updated to Android Lollipop, and the G Pad 8.3 GPE is now the first non-Nexus tablet device to be updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop.

It is also the first Google Play Edition device to have received the Android 5.0 OTA update. There are a number of other GPE devices as well but it doesn’t seem like those are ready to receive the update just yet. HTC was supposed to update the One M8 GPE and One M7 GPE models to Lollipop last week but had to delay the rollout due to some bugs in the firmware. Many users have already received the update on their device, and more are expected to receive it over the next few days. If you’re impatient you can also get the update right now by downloading the Android 5.0 update ZIP file from XDA developers website. Once you download it to your computer, transfer it to the internal memory of your G Pad 8.3 GPE and flash it via custom recovery.

The Android 5.0 update brings several new changes like the updated Material Design user-interface, new notification UI & priorities with popup notifications, redesigned recent apps layout with easier task switching, battery life improvements courtesy of Project Volta, improved performance and switch to the Android Runtime (ART) as default, smart lock feature with trusted devices that lets you unlock your phone using devices such as Android Wear smart watches, and improved Bluetooth connectivity.

While the G Pad 8.3 GPE is getting updated to Android 5.0 now, we’re curious about the fate of the regular G Pad 8.3 model as LG hasn’t yet spoken about its plans on upgrading any of its devices except the LG G3 to Android 5.0. But since the GPE variant has been updated, there is still some hope that the regular model will also be updated to Android 5.0 at some point. When it announced the Lollipop update for the G3, LG did mention that they are considering some other devices for the Lollipop update and will share further details at a later stage. With the G3 Lollipop update expected to roll out across most regions by the end of the year, we might expect more information on LG’s Lollipop update plans by early next year.