Google announces #Android Lollipop, Nexus 6 #smartphone, Nexus 9 tablet and Nexus Player

Version 5 of Android official gets a name as Google announces devices to go up against Apple's lineup. Photo: Google

Google has announced the next version of Android, formerly known as Android L, will be called Lollipop, officially version 5.0 of the mobile operating system. It also announced the first two devices to run Lollipop: the HTC Nexus 9 tablet and the Motorola Nexus 6.

The company also unveiled the first device to run Android TV: the Nexus Player. Built by Asus, the hockey puck-shaped device is a " first-of-its-kind Android gaming device," Google says.

Android 5.0 Lollipop

Sundar Pichai, Google's senior vice president of Android and Chrome, announced the new software and hardware in a blog post. Android 5.0 "#Lollipop" is the first version to employ a new design paradigm, which Google calls "Material," first announced at the Google I/O developer conference in the summer.

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Lollipop was made to keep the experience of using Android consistent across devices, Google says. From phones to TVs to smartwatches, if the device is running Lollipop, the interface will feel part of the same family, and transitions from device to device will be more seamless, with things like music, photos and video remembering where you left off.

The new version of Android gives users more granular control over notifications, with the ability to limit them in certain situations. For example, you may want to limit notifications to a few specific people when you're in a meeting or on personal time. This could have big implications for smartwatches and other wearables, where smart notifications are central to the experience.

Android Lollipop also includes a battery-saving feature that Google says can extend the life of a device by up to 90 minutes. It's unclear whether the battery saver limits functionality in any way, but considering it's just a fraction of what Samsung, HTC and others get from their ultra low-power modes, Lollipop's battery saver likely keeps you connected.

Security has improved, too. Lollipop includes a Smart Lock feature, which lets users designate trusted devices — such as a Bluetooth earpiece or smartwatch — to keep their phone unlocked when it's present. It's a feature that was previously available on some Android phones, Motorola's in particular, but with version 5.0 it's part of the OS.

Lollipop also includes Factor Reset Protection, according to Re/code, which lets device owners disable their phone remotely. Encryption for the phone's data is also enabled by default.

Nexus 6

The Nexus 6, made by Motorola, is the first smartphone to run Android Lollipop. It has a 6-inch display with Quad HD (2560 x 1440) resolution, a 13-megapixel camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a robust 3220 mAh battery that can charge quickly (15 minutes gets you 6 hours of battery life) with the included Turbo Charger.

Available in "midnight" blue or "cloud" white, the Nexus 6 will be up for pre-order in late October in the US for from $US649, though no official Australian release plans have been announced.

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Motorola also said many of its current phones will get the Android Lollipop update, including both versions of the Moto X, all three versions of the Moto G, the Moto E, the 2013 Droid line (Ultra, Mini and Maxx). There is no firm date for any update since any Android update needs to be approved by mobile carriers.

Nexus 9

The Nexus 9 tablet, as rumoured, is built by HTC. It has an 8.9-inch IPS (in-plane switching) LCD screen (the same size as the larger Kindle Fire HDX), protected by Gorilla Glass 3. Similar to the Nexus 7, which was made by Asus, the Nexus 9 has a soft-touch backside, but it also has a brushed-metal edge.

The tablet packs a 64-bit Tegra K1 processor, and its GPU is a Kepler DX1. It has 2GB of RAM and buyers can choose between 16GB or 32GB of storage. Both Wi-Fi and LTE versions will be available.

At 0.79 cm thick and 425 grams, the overall size of the Nexus 9 is lighter than the iPad Air and almost as thin. Like the HTC One, it'll have dual front-facing stereo speakers.

The Nexus 9 will be available October 17 in the US, starting at $US399 (again, no Australian ploans announced as yet). Google will also offer a keyboard case, which looks like a combination of an iPad Smart Cover and a Surface Type Keyboard.

Nexus Player

The Nexus Player represents the official launch of Android TV, the spiritual successor to Google TV, which didn't see much success in the marketplace (although Google says Google TV isn't being discontinued). Android TV brings the clout of the Android app platform to power a streaming device similar to a Roku box or Apple TV.

Unlike Google TV devices, the Nexus Player doesn't come with a keyboard. Instead it includes a voice-activated remote and a visual graphical user interface. Content syncs with other Android devices, letting users start watching on the Nexus Player and finish on a tablet or phone. The device is also compatible with Google Cast, meaning it also has all the abilities of Google's Chromecast dongle.

Powered by a quad-core Intel Atom processor, the Nexus Player is also available October 17 in the US, for $US99. Google will also offer an optional game controller for $US39.

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Top 10 Apps to Evaluate Android Phones

When new android devices and CPUs are released, benchmarking apps get a lot of attention, just as they also get the attention when a new phone is bought by users. Some are better than others, and numerical scores on a universal scale represent the real world performance one should expect from their device. Benchmarking apps are the best tools to compare the performance of Android devices for testing the overclocks or kernel changes on a device or testing the graphics rendering, to decide upon which product to purchase. These apps can test network performance, boot speed, gaming, processor, I/O, web browsing and graphics appeal for a multitude of devices and configurations. So, here is the list of Top 10 Apps to Evaluate Android Phones .

1. AnTuTu  4.5

AnTuTu Benchmark is one the most popular benchmarking apps in the android world, used as an industry standard by leading technology companies and hardware review sites. This benchmarking app has already been used by more than 100,000,000 users and also during Google I/O 2014. With this Click and Go test suite, Antutu tests all aspects of an android device which are mainly focused on the performance of UX, GPU, RAM, CPU, and Input/Output. User Experience or UX calculates the overall device performance while in the CPU Tests Measures the power of the CPU. RAM and GPU test measures the performance of RAM and graphic processing respectively. But the score may vary slightly every time as Antutu can be influenced by the device temperature, running apps and more.

2. NenaMark 2

NenaMark2 is an OpenGL benchmarking app for high-end mobile devices with higher resolution graphics and advanced graphical effects. NenaMark measures performance using realistic scenes, and provides the performance score in frames per second, which can be used for realistic comparisons between different devices. It tests with the effects of Skeletal Animation for matrix animation, Morph Target Animation for blend vertex sets, Water for reflections and Fresnel effect, the Cloud and Smoke System for advanced particle system and Dynamic lighting for diffuse lighting per vertex. It also uses Map Reflections without dynamic cube map generation for checking the performance of rendering.

3. Quadrant 2.1.1

Quadrant is a CPU and graphics benchmark which requires an Internet connection to compute benchmark results, and it is supported by ads. Quadrant tests the performance of CPU and its arithmetic operations, XML parsing and multimedia decoding while the I/O performance test rely on file system access and database operations. Performance of 2D graphics and 3D graphics can also be calculated with OpenGL single-pass and multi-pass rendering with stencil buffers. This application does not work on devices without a GPU like Spica, Tattoo, etc. The makers already declared that this benchmarking application may not be used for commercial purposes.

4. Vellamo

Vellamo is an easy-to-use suite designed of system-level benchmarks for devices based on Android 4.0 or higher. This app includes three primary chapters. The HTML5 Browser Chapter evaluates the performance of mobile web browser; the Multicore chapter measures the synergy of multiple CPU cores, and the Metal Chapter measures the CPU subsystem performance of mobile processors. It is designed to test the performance of UX, 3D graphics, memory read/write and peak bandwidth performance. The HTML5 Chapter is a set of system-level web browsing tests including graphics rendering and JavaScript to pixel blending and network stack performance. The Metal Chapter is a set of discrete lower-level benchmarks around the CPU, which includes CPU performance on integer and floating point operations.

5. Basemark X

Basemark X by Rightware is a benchmarking app for objective cross-platform comparisons between Android, iOS and Windows Phone 8 devices for hardcore gaming. It features heavy graphics content which pushes tested devices to the limit. It built on top of a real-world game engine Unity 4.2.2 which reflects the real-world graphics performance of smartphones and tablets when rendering future 3D games. Options are there to choose either medium or high quality to run the benchmark according to the specification of the device. In the end of the tests, Basemark X produces a high quality and objective score which can be compared against the scores of other devices on Rightware’s official database called Power Board.

6. GFXBench 3.0

GFXBench, with a single, easy-to-use application, is a cross-platform and cross-API 3D graphics benchmark that measures graphics performance, long-term performance stability, render quality and power consumption. It adds advanced OpenGL ES 3-features and new special tests to the popular GFXBench 3D graphics benchmark. In the app, Manhattan test is a GPU-intensive OpenGL ES 3 test using advanced API-features and Battery and Stability test which measures the device’s battery life, performance stability by logging frames-per-second, and expected battery running while running sustained game-like animations with its T-Rex scene. It also contains Render quality test for measuring the visual fidelity provided by the device in the high-end gaming.

7. Smartbench

Smartbench is a multi-core friendly benchmark application that measures the overall performance of android devices. It reports both Productivity and Gaming Index to suit both productive users and 3D gaming users. This app puts heavier load on each test to accurately evaluate the performance of the device, as it is all prepared for the quad-core smartphone world, and unfortunately, it runs slower on older devices. The new version also comes with high polygon objects count and 3D rendering test. It also detects high-resolution screens, and uses them appropriately for the purpose of evaluating. For new and existing Smartbench Donate users, it gives some additional features like no ads, entire results history, and also features result chart without running the test first.

8. 3DMark 1.3

3DMark 1.3 is a cross-platform benchmarking apps which compares the performance of the android device with phones and tablets running iOS, Windows or Windows RT. It comes absolutely free with no in-app purchase or restriction option. 3dMark is built on Ice Storm, an OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark that evaluates using fixed off-screen rendering at 720p then scales the output to fit the native display resolution of android. Ice Storm platform includes two graphics tests, designed to stress the GPU performance and a physics test to stress CPU performance. Ice Storm Extreme raises the off-screen rendering resolution to 1080p and uses higher quality textures and post-processing effects in the graphics tests to create a more demanding load for the latest smartphones and tablets.

9. GeekBench 3.1

GeekBench 3.1 is a popular cross-platform benchmarking app which includes several new tests designed to simulate real-world scenarios to measure android mobile processor performance quickly and accurately. Every test in Geekbench 3 is multi-core aware which allows Geekbench 3 to measure the full potential of device’s processor and also reports performance as separate single-core and multi-core scores that figure out how the device will handle apps. It is very easy to use app mainly to evaluate machine’s processor and memory stacks up. Its web-based Result Browser makes it easy to keep and access benchmark results from anywhere. But the Result Browser can get a bit clogged after intensive use.

10. SpeedTest

This benchmarking app designed by Ookla is attached with Speedtest.net, a widely known and one of the most used networking test engine for desktop and laptops of millions of user. It is a very easy to use app for evaluating the hardcore network performance of android devices. It provides accurate one-tap connection testing in less than 30 seconds because of its global network. It evaluates and gives accurate result of Download, Upload and Ping on the device. This app also comes with Real-time graphs which show the connection consistency of the device, as it also troubleshoot and verify the promised network speed. Tracking past tests with detailed reporting and sharing the results are two of the best feature of this app.

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