My LG G3 D855 was humbled recently by receiving its 5.0 update. While it is exciting to experience this new flavour of Android on this device, and here are the main changes that I found in using this for about two weeks.

It comes with the usual perks of Android 5.0, but the changes on LG’s side are not too significant.

The launcher remains almost identical to that of 4.4.2. A few changes LG made were to the notification panel, which got Lollipop-ified, and the toggles got new animations when clicked on.

Also, the multitasking panel got its Lollipop makever, making individual Chrome tabs into different applications and having the vertical screenshot stack look.

LG also introduces the ‘ripple’ effect on interactions in Lollipop, which looks wonderful.

By now, you might have noticed a few things; that the soft buttons have not changed aesthetically to the much more minimalistic stock Lollipop buttons, and that LG still does not have a quick toggles part of its notification panel, unlike most other OEMs.

These aesthetic changes brought a drastic change the user experience. However, this is not all for the best. The handset is prone to occasional crashes, overheating, and subsequent battery drainage. While I could get through a day and a half on one full charge with the occasional conversation on Facebook or Snapchat, this new software cannot support this, and drains battery quicker, at a rate of almost 15% per hour, when in on-off usage, for example, when conversing.

Due to the regression of performance, the overall user experience has declined dramatically in quality and in-app performance has also decreased. During a sporadic 2-hour Youtube viewing, my device overheated so much that my phone crashed. I have had numerous experiences like this, for example, when playing Real Boxing, or any other high-graphics games.

This update feels almost unstable, in that even in light usage, apps are prone to crashing and stuttering. This is almost worse than most of the nightly builds of Cyanogenmod I have used, and it is unacceptable for a public, official build from a company as rich in resources and bountiful in talent as LG. While I am happy that LG feels responsible to deliver quick, snappy updates, however, I believe that a more complete testing and development period for the new software would have served more purpose.

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