Droid Turbo 5.1 (Lollipop) Experiences and Observations

[Thom]

This thread is for your experiences and observations after converting from 4.4.4 (Kit Kat) to 5.1 (Lollipop).

... Thom

 

[Thom]

OTA upgrade was 771MB and required a WIFI connection for the download.

Installation is time consuming and part of it is because of the Dalvik to ART runtime upgrade that requires tweaking each installed app. (I did not time it ... it was over 30min total with 300 apps installed.) (If you plan to do a Factory Data Reset after the upgrade ... do one before the upgrade, do the upgrade, and then do another Factory Data Reset. This will greatly reduce the time.)

The sound when connecting to a wireless charger is unfortunately back. It was great in Kit Kat when it was silent.

Keystrokes to invoke Wipe Cache Partition are changed. They are now the same as the Moto X.

Wipe Cache Partition takes 9 to 10 minutes and that is similar to Kit Kat.

Font used on system pages is changed and is hard to read. Perhaps the cause is the unfortunate white background. On everything. I want white letters on black background. The only adjustment is to increase the font size. That has negative impacts elsewhere (like the labels under the icons on the home screen.)

New Previous Apps display is interesting and helpful sometimes. An option to show only the title bars of the app screens would help allowing more on each page and less noise separating them.

WIFI performance is improved. In Kit Kat from the next room while connected at 5GHz it would drop the connection and under Lollipop it is greatly reduced (150Mbbs near to 32 Mbps far) but still connected. At 2.4GHz it is now unchanged at either room at 72Mbps.

Layout of information in About Phone is changed and there are some additions.

About Phone now includes “Hardware SKU” with a value of “XT1254”. I believe this is the first time the hardware model number was ever presented by the installed system. I hope this approach continues at Motorola. It will help a lot in discussions.

Silent Mode under Kit Kat had On, Off, and Vibrate. Silent Mode under Lollipop has Off and Vibrate but there is no On. You can only switch between Vibrate and Off.

Battery life seems to be worse as compared to Kit Kat. It is not clear at this point by how much. (It seems that Location (using GPS) may be getting turned on when I don't expect it and that may account for the battery depletion.)

I did a Wipe Cache Partition after the upgrade. I have not yet done a Factory Data Reset.

... Thom

 

[dhbuckley]

More thoughts to come but the most important thing is that the music controls are removed from the lock screen! So now 3 actions to get to simply skipping a song. Terrible. You can put notifications on the screen which is annoying but gives small music controls. I want only music controls.

Any ideas?

 

[Thom]

Someone else perhaps has a suggestion. I never use a lock screen (X, Bionic, Maxx. or Turbo) ... it is one of those things I always wondered ... why did they bother to include it? Borrowing a phrase from my Father ... "keeping the honest men honest".

... Thom

 

[vzwuser76]

Here's my 2¢. For the most part I like LP. I already have some experience with it from my Nexus 7, but as always there are always some differences between a Nexus and an OEM.

The Good:
My batter life has improved. On KK, overnight I'd average losing 3% an hour with it sitting idle, but on LP I'm only losing 1.4% an hour. Overall the device is snappier, and that's without a FDR, and cellular and WiFi signal are stronger and more stable as well. Also, for anyone who came from the Droid Maxx and used the Percent Enabler app to show the battery percentage in the status bar icon, it works in LP now. It shows black digits on the white icon background until it gets down to 25-30% and then switches to white digits.

Not Good or Bad:
Not only did they change how you access wiping the cache partition, but also how it acts. I started a wipe and left it work while I went to do other things. I got busy and forgot about it and when I came back, the display was on and waiting for me tell it if I wanted to reboot, where before it would automatically reboot. So don't leave your phones unattended after starting a cache wiping.

The Bad (IMHO)
Google has dropped Groups from the Contacts app, and only left All and Favorites to choose from. This isn't isolated to the Turbo, apparently this is the way it is on any LP device, so there won't be a change coming, if ever. I found an app called Contact Groups. The 72 hour trial is free and costs $.99 to unlock. The only problem is it only has Groups, no All or Favorites, but I use Groups quite a bit and Favorites are in the Dialer. I'm not a fan of the rolodex for recent apps, as well as getting rid of tabs in Chrome and putting each browser tab as an individual window in the recent apps screen, or putting individual app settings as separate windows either. It makes it way more cluttered than it needs to be. I'm not happy having a white background on an amoled phone as it's not great for battery, they need a light and a dark theme (waiting on Android M for that).

But overall the update has been good, I just wish Google would quit changing things for the sake of changing them. First Priority and now the Contacts and Recent Apps. They should learn to not mess up a good thing.

 

[BKline2003]

I haven't read through everything on the page yet, but I have noticed that my battery life has greatly increased in just the few days that I have had the 5.1 update. I do plan on messing around with the propriety settings, but am kinda glad there is now something that you can silence texts late at night and stuff like that. Really enjoyed that setting in my Droid Maxx HD.

 

[vzwuser76]

I haven't read through everything on the page yet, but I have noticed that my battery life has greatly increased in just the few days that I have had the 5.1 update. I do plan on messing around with the propriety settings, but am kinda glad there is now something that you can silence texts late at night and stuff like that. Really enjoyed that setting in my Droid Maxx HD.

It's always had that ability. That was part of Moto Assist from the beginning on the 2013 Droid series and Moto X.

 

[timm9]

I allowed the update to install on Sunday afternoon and here are my observations so far;

I did not do an FDR, but did clear the cache after the install was complete. The device seems to be quicker, and more stable and most importantly the 'issues' I was dealing with after the small update are now gone as far as I can tell. I could be wrong but it seems that battery life has improved slightly. I have also noted that the clarity of the screen appears to be more crisp and clear particularly with security images i.e. Dropcams. So far all is well...

 

[Somniferum]

I'm not a fan of the rolodex for recent apps, as well as getting rid of tabs in Chrome and putting each browser tab as an individual window in the recent apps screen, or putting individual app settings as separate windows either. It makes it way more cluttered than it needs to be.

You may already know this, but there's a option in Chrome to change tab behavior back to Kit Kat style (Chrome > Settings > Merge tabs and apps). However, I would recommend giving the new behavior a fair try before changing it back. I hated it at first but after getting used to it I now prefer the new behavior. One thing that helps is the color-coding of the tabs, which helps you find them quicker in the stack. Note that disabling the merged tabs and apps also removes the color coding completely from the address bar/status bar for web pages that have implemented it, which is a matter of preference but I really like the color coding.

Glad to see you guys finally getting to enjoy Lollipop! I don't have a Turbo but recently sold my Droid Maxx and bought a Nexus 6, so have been adjusting to Lollipop over the past few weeks. Feel free to ping me with any questions about Lollipop in general.

 

[buckmaster2701]

just did the update today and have one questions about it. on the quick setting menu it only gives the option to change WIFI and BLUETOOTH with accessing any other screen. is there anyway to change it so that it can have WIFI and DATA. i had recently installed an app for quick setting that would let me access with one click but now that doesnt work either. it take me to another menu just like the new quick setting.

 

[YY1334]

I'm kind of annoyed. I use pattern to unlock, previously I simply hit the power button to wake the phone up and then entered my pattern, simple. Now they make me hit the power button, swipe, and then enter a pattern. Why add the swipe as mandatory? It adds nothing and will bother me every single time I use my phone now.

Also I had a bar that was one touch on/off for bluetooth, wifi, location, autorefresh, and brightness, now it has disappeared and I don't see a replacement. I used that bar constantly. Like I said, annoyed.

 

[Thom]

I'm kind of annoyed. I use pattern to unlock, previously I simply hit the power button to wake the phone up and then entered my pattern, simple. Now they make me hit the power button, swipe, and then enter a pattern. Why add the swipe as mandatory? It adds nothing and will bother me every single time I use my phone now.

I have always been at a loss as to what is accomplished with the "lock" and I never use it. I just hit the power button. I find your old way of unlocking each time to be cumbersome. You might consider Tasker and seeing if you can enable the lock when you need it and disable it when you don't.

Also I had a bar that was one touch on/off for bluetooth, wifi, location, autorefresh, and brightness, now it has disappeared and I don't see a replacement. I used that bar constantly. Like I said, annoyed.

If you swipe down and hit the upper right corner avatar (probably of you) a screen appears with these switch's.

... Thom

 

[YY1334]

A police officer needs a warrant to search your phone if it has a lock, they do not if it is not locked as that is considered 'plain view'. Just one of many reasons.

edit: regardless, is there a way to turn off the slide?

 

[Reddog40]

What does install deferred mean? Phone seems to be working ok. How do I correct this? I keep getting message no updates available, system is up to date when I check for update. This is on my wife's turbo.

 

[gridbug]

A bit underwhelmed by 5.1 so far. My biggest gripe is that there doesn't seem to be a "clear all recent" feature anymore when I touch the button to see what apps are still open and I now have to close them all one at a time. Or did I miss something?

 

[Thom]

What does install deferred mean? Phone seems to be working ok. How do I correct this? I keep getting message no updates available, system is up to date when I check for update. This is on my wife's turbo.

I'm curious ... are you connected on WIFI when you make the query?

... Thom

 

[Thom]

A bit underwhelmed by 5.1 so far. My biggest gripe is that there doesn't seem to be a "clear all recent" feature anymore when I touch the button to see what apps are still open and I now have to close them all one at a time. Or did I miss something?

I have not found a way to clear the list. It is now more far reaching then just previous run snapshots. Check it out after a system reboot.

... Thom

 

[Reddog40]

I'm curious ... are you connected on WIFI when you make the query?

... Thom

Yes sir I was. My turbo didn't do this. I just noticed it on my wife's.

 

[doogald]

My biggest gripe is that there doesn't seem to be a "clear all recent" feature anymore when I touch the button to see what apps are still open and I now have to close them all one at a time. Or did I miss something?

KitKat never had a clear all apps button, either.

 

[Somniferum]

If you swipe down and hit the upper right corner avatar (probably of you) a screen appears with these switch's.

... Thom

You can also swipe down with two fingers and it will take you directly to the switches screen.

 

[doogald]

What does install deferred mean? Phone seems to be working ok. How do I correct this? I keep getting message no updates available, system is up to date when I check for update. This is on my wife's turbo.

It looks like you already have the update. That install deferred thing is just a bug that seems to affect Moto phones every once in a while. It happened with the droid Maxx a few times in the last two years - you'd have the latest, touch that screen, see that message, try to update and it would (properly) say that you have the latest update.

Don't worry about it.

 

[Reddog40]

It looks like you already have the update. That install deferred thing is just a bug that seems to affect Moto phones every once in a while. It happened with the droid Maxx a few times in the last two years - you'd have the latest, touch that screen, see that message, try to update and it would (properly) say that you have the latest update.

Don't worry about it.

Thank you sir. I appreciate it.

 

[oaklane]

Have a notification to do a system update to 5.1 is anyone having issues with the update?

 

[Thom]

Threads merged.

It seems very stable. The only hiccups I have encountered ...

Silent Mode On was removed and you must now use Interrupt Mode None or Interrupt Mode Priority after authorizing the app to do it.

The replacement for the Previous Apps capability is a little clunky at times.

The white screens with somewhat faint black type are tough to read on the Turbo under some conditions. An option to do white on black would be a great improvement.

... Thom

 

[Thom]

BTW ... it now provides simultaneous voice and data.

Soak test ended today.

... Thom