Motorola beats LG to first official Lollipop update for new Moto G

By Killian Bell

For a short while it looked like LG was going to become the first third-party device manufacturer to roll out an official Android 5.0 Lollipop update, but Motorola has beaten the South Korean company to it. Its massive Lollipop upgrade is already rolling out to users with an unlocked Moto G, and this time it isn’t just a soak test.

Some would argue that Motorola was already first to issue a Lollipop upgrade when it began releasing an update for the new Moto X last week, however, the update was only made available to a select few users with a “Pure Edition” device for testing purposes, so it doesn’t really count.

The Lollipop update for the new Moto G, on the other hand, is now available to everyone with an unlocked unit, Ars Technica reports — while those with an older Nexus smartphone are still waiting.

“Our unlocked US version of the phone is downloading its 386.7MB Lollipop update now,” writes Andrew Cunningham. “As of this writing, this update only appears to be rolling out to the larger, second-generation Moto G.”

In addition to the Material Design makeover, this release brings new features like multi-user support, the ability to unlock your phone with your Android Wear watch, and improvements to performance and battery life. The complete list of changes is huge, as we reported on Tuesday when Motorola published its release notes.

Motorola’s decision to make its software as pure as possible, with only minor tweaks and changes, means it doesn’t take long to prepare the latest Android updates for its devices. That’s great news for its users, who tend to get big updates like this one well in advance of anyone else.

If you haven’t already received your Lollipop update for the second-generation Moto G, and you have an unlocked handset, it should be arriving over-the-air soon. We haven’t had ours in the U.K. yet, so it’s possible Motorola is addressing a small number of markets at a time.