You’ve had to wait for the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy Note 4 to get Lollipop, and watch other carriers such as Sprint bring Lollipop to the Galaxy Note 3. And now, your day has come. We saw the Verizon website update earlier this morning, but it was only until this afternoon before Verizon officially released Android 5.0 Lollipop for the Note 3.
The first update takes the build number from N900VVRUDNK1 to VVRUDNK5 and, while still on Android 4.4.4 KitKat, prepares the Note 3 to receive Lollipop.
The Lollipop update, bearing build number LRX21V.N900VVRUEOB6, comes in at something of a hefty size – seeing that it took us two hours to download Lollipop before we could install it. We didn’t receive any warning messages about the amount of space needed, however (unlike the Verizon Galaxy S5 when it upgraded back in February), so the update may not be all that bad unless you can’t download it because you don’t have enough storage space available.
The next dramatic change would have to be the battery diagnostic graph within the battery settings. In Android 4.4 KitKat, the battery graph was black; it is now white, within Lollipop. In addition, Samsung has gone and provided not only how long the Note 3 battery lasts but also how much battery life remains. This is not the case with the Galaxy S5 but the S6 and S6 edge.
A few icons have changed in Lollipop, such as Samsung's Scrapbook in the app drawer, Verizon's Setup Wizard, as well as the Air Gesture icon from the settings panel located in the drop-down notification window.
There are some other changes such as the addition of the weather and distance walked/run information on the lock screen, as well as the last text message information when placing a phone call in the phone app. The other changes are typical of Material Design, such as lock screen notifications, the unified task manager that places all apps and websites in the same place, and the “Flappy Droid” easter egg. Samsung did not add its Ultra Power Saving Mode, nor did the company include Google's battery-saving mode from Lollipop in the new update, unfortunately.
All in all, the Lollipop update for the Note 3 finally brings a number of Verizon customers to their last six months in their two-year contract. At least now, you'll have a little more speed, some cool new animations, and some nice additions to the software before you pick up a new Galaxy S6 edge or Galaxy Note 5. Stay on the lookout for your new Verizon Note 3 Lollipop update in the days and hours to come. Until it arrives, take a look at the pics below.
