Google officially unveiled the latest major Android release in the form of Android 5.0 Lollipop earlier today. Alongside this news, Google also announced two new Nexus smartphones: the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9 (details below) which will be loaded with Android 5.0 Lollipop on release.
The company also confirmed that Lollipop will also be available on older Nexus 4, 5, 7, 10 and Google Play edition devices in the coming weeks. Other manufacturers have also announced Lollipop plans for their devices such as Motorola who says that it will bring this upgrade to “Moto X (1st and 2nd Gen), Moto G (1st and 2nd Gen), Moto G with 4G LTE, Moto E, Droid Ultra, Droid Maxx and Droid Mini.”
Sony is always late to the party in announcing official plans for new Android releases. However, do not expect it to land in 2014. In terms of devices to see the upgrade, the Xperia Z3 series is a dead cert, along with the Xperia Z2 and Z2 Tablet. We would also expect to see the Xperia Z1, Z1 Compact to be upgraded.
The biggest question mark in our eyes surrounds the older Xperia Z devices (Xperia Z, ZL, ZR, Tablet Z), along with some of the lower/mid-range devices released over the last 18 months. Anyway, knowing Sony’s history in this area, which handsets do you think will be upgraded? We’d love to hear your thoughts below.
Nexus 6
The Nexus 6 (built by Motorola) has a contoured aluminium frame, a 5.96-inch Quad HD (1440 x 2560) display with 493 PPI pixel density, stereo speakers, a 13 megapixel camera with f2.0 lens, 2MP front-facing camera, 3GB RAM and 3220mAh battery. It will be powered by a 2.7GHz quad-core processor and Adreno 420 graphics (Qualcomm Snapdragon 805) and 3GB. Storage will come in 32GB and 64GB variants. The Nexus 6 will be available for pre-order in late October and in US stores in November.
Nexus 9
The Nexus 9 (built by HTC) has an 8.9-inch IPS screen with 4:3 aspect ratio and QXGA resolution (2048 x 1536). The tablet is powered by a 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor, 2GB RAM and comes in 16GB and 32GB variants. Other features include 6700 mAh, 8MP rear camera (f/2.4), 1.6MP front-facing camera (f/2.4) and dual front-facing speakers with HTC BoomSound. Pre-orders for the Nexus 9 will start on October 17 and in stores starting November 3.
