HTC and Sony to update recent phones to Android Lollipop

HTC and Sony have announced which smartphones they will update to Android 5.0. The entire Xperia Z line will be updated, as will HTC’s One M8 and One M7. Other One devices will follow later.

Sony will soon announce when it will update the Xperia devices to Android L. First up is the Google Play edition of the Z Ultra; other Xperia devices will follow “early 2015”. The Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z2 are the first to turn. HTC will be the first to provide the One M8 and One M7 with Android Lollipop. This must be done within 90 days of receiving the final source code from Google, Android Central reports. Other One devices and ‘certain other phones’ will follow later, HTC promises, but it is not stated which other phones those are.

Motorola previously announced that most recent smartphones will update to Android Lollipop. Buyers of a Nexus device are the first to act: in the coming weeks, those phones will be equipped with the new Android version via an over the air update. The relatively old Nexus 4 and the first version of the Nexus 7 will also be updated.

In addition to a new interface, Android L contains many new features and APIs; Google calls it its most ambitious release to date. One of the biggest changes is the new notification system. Another big new feature is ART, which stands for Android Runtime. It will replace the current Dalvik Virtual Machine, which has so far been used to run Android apps written in Java.