Screenshot_2015-03-21-07-50-24

Previously I posted about my experience on my Nexus 7 2012 edition with the Android 5.0 Lollipop upgrade. And my first positive impressions of the new Android iteration got a lot of negative response. So here goes again. My machine has just upgraded to Android Lollipop 5.1, and here is my experience so far.

Do bear in mind that my first good experience with Android 5.0 Lollipop got a lot more frustrating later on, with long lags switching between apps, frequent “not responding” messages, etc. I don’t know whether this was some kind of accumulation of cruft or similar cumulative problems, but it did sour me somewhat on the version too. So possibly things will go the same way later with Lollipop 5.1. That said, so far at least, the update does seem to have fixed many of the problems I was running into with 5.0. The machine does run quicker and more smoothly. I see far fewer of the “not responding” messages for specific apps – though they do still recur at times. Even wifi connectivity seems better.

So although I haven’t used any of Lollipop 5.1’s new features yet, overall it’s a good experience so far, and a welcome relief to get my main productivity and ereading device back on form. Here it is in the above screenshot, with appropriately Mackintosh tartan decor.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Lollipop 5.1 on a Nexus 7 (2012) WiFi improved issues to a certain extent, but not even close in regards to making it an enjoyable experience.

    After a fresh factory reset and cache wipe in the stock recovery, I installed the factory image from the bootloader by executing the flash-all script. As expected, everything went great. Zero issues.

    Booting and going through the setup process was as normal as always. I chose not restore any apps/data backups from Google’s servers as I wanted to start as vanilla as possible.

    Once the system settled down, I opened the Play Store to update only the pre-installed apps which called for one, and rebooted immediately.

    Giving the system a few minutes to settle down once again, I anticipated that the device would be smooth and productive. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

    The lag, freezing, and overall functionality is still poor with Lollipop 5.1. I entered Developer Options and disabled all animations to see if that would help, but to no avail. In this state, the tablet is just unusable.

    It appears that the Nexus 7 (2012) WiFi has ran its course. It may simply be too old for Lollipop.

    I have no choice but to go back to Kit Kat 4.4.4.

  2. What do you do with your Nexus 7 2012? I can’t even start it like normal. It freezes in a few seconds after restart. I did the inactivate animations and stuff and nothing happens, it’s still unusable. I don’t know what else to do!

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