Android L 5.0.2 Update for Samsung Galaxy S5; Android 5.0 Release Date Coming To Note 4 and Note Edge This Month

Jan 09, 2015 06:11 PM EST

Samsung users will be excited to hear that the Korean manufacturer will soon be getting the Android 5.0 Lollipop update to its line of Galaxy devices, including the S3, S4, S5, Note 3, Note 4, and Note Edge. Plus, a manual ROM update is now available for the very latest patch, update 5.0.2, for the Galaxy S5.

Let's start with the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge phablets which are both expected to receive the Lollipop update by the end of January. Although Samsung has yet to confirm this rumor, even U.S. carrier versions for AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, and U.S. Cellular are expected to receive the update in addition to those purchased as carrier-less versions. Both devices are expected to skip November's 5.0 iteration and go straight to 5.0.1, which fixes many of the launch-day bugs that were introduced with 5.0.

The older devices, like the Galaxy Note 3, Galaxy S3, and Galaxy S4 are expected to also get the update in the next month or so, but it's unclear whether they'll be released in conjunction with that of the newer Note 4 and Note Edge.

But it's the Galaxy S5 that has been getting most of the sweet Lollipop attention over the last few months as last year's flagship smartphone for Samsung has received the update in manual ROM form, and only for the models not attached to a U.S. carrier. Those running on AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile, or U.S. Cellular are still holding on to Android 4.4.4 Kitkat, which is the latest stable version of the popular operating system.

The carrier-less versions are available straight through Google or Samsung, but even if you have a Samsung S5 through a carrier, many experts expect the over-the-air (OTA) update to start sending out download notifications in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, Latin Times is reporting that users of the Galaxy S5 can start grabbing the ROM download for the Lollipop 5.0.2 patch very soon.

"We would like to note that at this point we consider ourselves 85% complete for our initial CM12 M release," a spokesperson for CyanogenMod said on the popular group's website. "We'll spend the remainder of this month bringing up additional devices and finishing up the features you've come to love from CM11 - implementing them into the new Material UI," according to a post on the official website of CyanogenMod.

The CyanogenMod 12 nightly download is currently available for 31 devices on the website, but they warn that the software could cause unknown harmful effects to your device, so you would be downloading and installing at your own risk.

When 5.0 Lollipop first launched in November, it brought with it a host of nasty bugs, including wi-fi connectivity issues and password recognition problems, but subsequent incremental patches like 5.0.1 and 5.0.2 were quickly introduced to fix things up. Many believe that the current delay in new devices releasing the latest operating system update is due to manufacturers and carriers making the jump to 5.0.2 instead of releasing 5.0 and 5.0.1 first. This seems to be the case with Samsung, and hopefully for other Android devies as well.

We'll be sure to keep you updated on the latest devices and carriers to receive the Android patches as they arrive.