One of the biggest faults of the Android operating system is the market fragmentation. Buy an iPhone? Then you know you’re gonna get the latest iOS update. But with Android? Who knows when you’ll get that latest update.
Android 5.0 Lollipop is the latest update from the Google team, and one of the biggest in recent times. It’s looking like the Google Nexus 6 will be the first handset to receive the update, which should come as little surprise seeing as the Nexus range exists to show off Android in its purest form. So what other handsets are set to follow? The Sony Xperia Z3? The Samsung Galaxy A5? Oh sure, probably, at some point. Try going back a bit further.
It has been all but confirmed that the Motorola Defy will be receiving the Lollipop update. If the name doesn’t ring any bells, that may be because it’s a four year old handset.
Granted the update isn’t official, rather one being worked on by a renowned Android developer from the popular site XDA Developers. You can track its progress in this forum thread, if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s actually so dated that the developer is attempting to port over the kernel of an Android Wear device in order to deliver Lollipop to it.
We’re not too sure how many Motorola Defy handsets are still going around in active use, but there’s obviously some sort of demand for it. It’s a truly durably little device and a real testament to just how far Android has come in four years.
When it was first released the Defy came with Android 2.0 Eclair running on it. The handset boasts a 3.7-inch display with a whopping 480 x 854 pixel resolution, sat in front of a Cortex A8 single-core processor clocked at 800MHz. There’s 512MB of RAM to help you access its 2GB of internal storage, but if that’s not enough for you you can expand it another 32GB via microSD.
On the back sits a 5MP main camera and you don’t get a front-facing one. It’s also waterproof, which is surprising.
Upon review it seems like the most impressive thing about all this isn’t that someone has sat down to bring Lollipop to the Defy but that the handset can actually handle it.
If you happen to have moved on since 2010 then don’t worry – Lollipop is confirmed to be coming to the LG G3, the HTC One family of handsets, Samsung Galaxy S5 and Note 4, Motorola Moto range and plenty more very, very soon.