Android 5.0 Lollipop Update for Samsung Galaxy S5 Release Date Finally Arrives Worldwide

Jonah Hicap Sunday, February 08, 2015

Many handsets in the U.S. are updating to Android 5.0 Lollipop | REUTERS

The Android 5.0 Lollipop update for Samsung's Galaxy S5 smartphones has now reached the U.S., Australia and other countries.

Verizon announced earlier this week that Android 5.0 Lollipop is now available for Galaxy S5 users. Sprint Galaxy S5 users are also now ready for the OS update.

An S5 user in Australia reported recently that his device had been updated to the new software, according to Android Authority. The update was rolled out in Poland last December and it is ongoing in other countries.

In Russia, Galaxy S4 users have also started getting Android.5.0.1 update, according to Sam Mobile. "The update is rolling out to the Exynos variant of the device (GT-I9500), and is rather huge at 1049MB. It looks like the update is so big that Samsung will be removing some pre-loaded apps like Google Play Books, Movies and others to make space," the blog reported.

Sam Mobile also reported that the Galaxy S4 LTE-A (GT-19506) is now getting the Android 5.0 Lollipop update, which is available for users in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Germany.

Android 5.0 Lollipop offers a new breed of features including material design, which showcases fluid animations, vivid colored themes and 3-D views, according to Verizon.

The update will bring bolder colors while the lock screen feature will have shortcuts for both phone and camera. It also has the ability to set priority and privacy notifications on lock screen.

Samsung's TouchWiz feature will be brighter with bold colors. The floating action button will afford users easy access to apps' most important features, including composing a text message.

Notifications, including phone calls and messages, can now be set up to have sound or vibration while others are muted.

There's also an easy access to Chrome tabs from the Recent apps page and multi-window icons for easy multi-tasking.

For Sprint users who will update their Galaxy S5, the latter will have enhanced Voice over WiFi user interface while the Lumen tool bar is removed, according to Samsung U.S.