Any reason to upgrade to 5.0.2?

[ET3D]

I have a 32GB Nexus 7 2012 with Android 4.4.4. I passed on the 5.0 upgrade and I'm happy I didn't take it. Now 5.0.2 is being offered. I'd like to know if there's any benefit to upgrading. I mean, would something actually work better if I do? Faster? Better battery life? Better memory handling? If not, I'll probably stay with 4.4.4 for now.

Thanks!

 

[Rukbat]

Depends on the model of the tablet. Mostly what you'll notice is Material Design and bugs. I'm still on 4.4.2, my wife is on 4.4.4 and there's no real difference. Trade working devices for a buggy OS? Sorry, I;m retired, I don't chase bugs for a living any more. When Google gets them worked out, maybe I'll update. But not because the marketing department said that they had to come out with a nicer looking interface by a certain date. I've been there - and chased those bugs. When the people in marketing get CS degrees and 5 years experience writing software with more than 10,999 lines of code, I'll jump on what they release. (And take a weekend trip to Mars, because that's about when it'll happen.)

Great reasons to NOT update from 4 to 5, noe one I can think of that's universal to update. (Some devices actually seem to run better on 5, most seem to run so much worse that you could say they don't run.) 5.0.2 doesn't seem to be much of an improvement over 5.0 or 5.0.1. Maybe 5.2 or 5.5, but I'm not even hoping that 6 will be a real improvement. Wishing, but not hoping.

 

[Bazza1]

No, if you are still on KitKat - and especially if the apps you use run without any issue and the OS and hardware seem to be stable.

IIABDFI (If It Ain't Broke....) applies here.

If you have migrated to 5, then chances are pretty good 5.0.2 will help you regain some control over the OS, hardware and apps that all went pear-shaped with Lollipop. But it's a patch and the OS it is allegedly fixing is, frankly, a bit of a wank, with little in the way of material (if you'll excuse the pun) gain - especially for the N7 (2012).
And really, it seems that a Factory Default Reset is the only real way to 'guarantee' you'll get close to what the OS should be offering in the way of stability and useability - so plan on devoting several hours to get back to the default, your apps back where you want them and all your Accounts signed in.

Like I said, IIABDFI.

 

[UncleMike]

I don't see any real benefit of updating from 4.4.4. Material design is a major hyped part of Lollipop, but I spend most of my time using apps, not the OS. Updating the OS won't change the UI of the apps, and apps can update their UI without updating the OS. So I don't really see any urgency to update the OS if what I have now is working fine.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[athomas917]

5.0.2 addresses issues caused by 5.0. Just don't install the Facebook app. It doesn't play nicely with lollipop on the 2012 tablets.

 

[ET3D]

I'm mainly using my Nexus 7 for games (currently playing Knights of the Old Republic). (I think I need a new tablet, but the lack of a Nexus 7 2014 meant I'm still waiting to buy one.) Kitkat brought some real improvement there, with better memory management, which meant games might not get evicted from RAM if you switch to another app, and allowing apps to run full screen.

Does Lollipop bring any real improvement? If there was ART support, that might have been helpful, but last I've read (which was at Lollipop release) ART wasn't available on the Nexus 7 2012.

 

[sibeans]

I'm mainly using my Nexus 7 for games (currently playing Knights of the Old Republic). (I think I need a new tablet, but the lack of a Nexus 7 2014 meant I'm still waiting to buy one.) Kitkat brought some real improvement there, with better memory management, which meant games might not get evicted from RAM if you switch to another app, and allowing apps to run full screen.

Does Lollipop bring any real improvement? If there was ART support, that might have been helpful, but last I've read (which was at Lollipop release) ART wasn't available on the Nexus 7 2012.

You can try flaahing a different kernel to overclock the GPU

 

[srkmagnus]

You can try flaahing a different kernel to overclock the GPU

Assuming the OP is bootloader unlocked.

 

[ET3D]

I think that the lack of RAM and slow storage are more of an issue than the GPU speed. Overclocking might help a bit, but I'm not sure I want a warmer, more power hungry tablet. Battery life isn't great as is, and that's one reason I thought Lollipop might be good, because it promised improvements to battery life.

Edit: Just read about SlimROM and F2FS. These look like good ways to alleviate the RAM and storage problems just a bit. Still not sure I want to do a clean install.

Also, found this (regarding the Nexus 7 2012): "It scored 17710 on an AnTuTu benchmark before the upgrade (on 4.4.4). After the upgrade to 5.0.2, the AnTuTu benchmark score is 19520." (Unfortunately the forum doesn't let me link the thread, and ate my reply which I needed to re-type.) I'd love to know what improved; a benchmark end score doesn't really provide much information.