Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 Update News for Android 5.0.2 Lollipop

By Shawn Schuster
Google Nexus 7
Google Nexus 7 during its announcement in 2012. Photo: Anandtech.com

While Google's own Nexus line of devices has not been completely caught up with the company's own Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system just yet, a few of the Nexus products are enjoying the upgrade as we speak. The Nexus 6 originally launched with the mobile OS, but what can we expect on the Nexus 5 and Nexus 7?

Right now, there are two ways to upgrade your smartphone or tablet to Android 5.0 Lollipop: you can wait for the automatic notification to come in an over-the-air (OTA) update, or you can manually download and install the files yourself if you're an advanced user on the Android platform.

Nexus 5

For the Nexus 5, bugs and glitches are part of the package. Even at launch, the Nexus 5 had some issues, but updates to Android 4.4 KitKat helped smooth things out a bit. When 5.0 Lollipop came to the Nexus 5 in November of last year, Google developed the 5.0.1 patch to solve those problems, especially for the Nexus 5.

But continued issues with the Nexus 5 plague users who are experiencing glitches with reduced battery life, charging issues, wi-fi and Bluetooth bugs, and more. Right now, the Nexus 5 stands firm with 5.0.1, but there's no word on when or if 5.0.2 will come down the pipe.

The Nexus 5, originally code-named Hammerhead, is a budget-minded smartphone that was originally launched in October of 2013. It features the 2.6 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with 2 GB of RAM, 16 or 32 GB of storage, and an 8-megapixel rear camera all with a 4.95-inch display showing 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution.

Nexus 7

The Nexus 7 2013 LTE edition and the Nexus 7 2012 3G edition can now both be updated to Android 5.0.2 Lollipop. This is certainly good news for cellular users as the Android 5.0.2 update was previously only available to both generations of the Nexus 7's wi-fi versions only.

But the only catch here is that the cellular versions of the Nexus 7 devices are for the contract-less models as no carriers have yet announced the addition of Android 5.0.2 Lollipop to their networks for the Nexus 7.

The Nexus 7 is a tablet that was first introduced in July of 2012 as a competitively priced 7-inch tablet to compete with the iPad, and the second generation Nexus 7 for 2013 released with even more fanfare. The Nexus 7 2014 features an improved 1.5 GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 2 GB of RAM, 16 or 32 GB of storage, and a slightly larger 7.02-inch display showing off 1920 x 1200 resolution.

If you'd like to manually download the OTA update files for the Nexus 7 (2012 and 2013 editions), you can find files for the the wi-fi-only, LTE, and 3G versions.

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