This year saw the introduction of Google's most advanced and thoughtfully redesigned Android update, dubbed Android 5.0 Lollipop (or Android L, for short).

With a much more intuitive and standardized user interface, enhanced connectivity across devices, improved software mechanics under the hood, and a bevvy of new and long-requested features now built-in, it's no wonder so many Android users want their Lollipop.

Material Design: Intuitive Elegance

The first and most apparent difference in using Android 5.0 Lollipop is its user interface, based on a new set of design principles -- or as Google puts it, "a comprehensive guide for visual, motion, and interaction design across platforms and devices -- called Material Design.

Google's new standardized mobile language is based on the digital "cards" you've seen creeping over the last year or so into Google's web and mobile apps.

The full list of the Material Design UI is quite long and detailed, with standardized lists of shadow effects, color schemes, icons, menus and sub-menus. But in effect, it provides a way to navigate through your smartphone that feels intuitive, fluid, and much more standardized.

It successfully eliminates most of the navigational chaos and confusion that has scared off non-Android users the same way early versions of Microsoft Windows lost ground to Apple.

Here's a simple but perfect example: the redesigned triangle back button faces leftwards when you can use it to go to the previous screen or webpage. But when your keyboard is enabled, it faces down, intuitively signaling that pressing it won't navigate away from your screen, but will simply bring the keyboard back down and out of the way.

Similarly, menus look and work the same way across the whole system, gesture options like swipes are instinctively apparent without being loudly advertised on the screen, and the color scheme is bright, friendly, and differentiated without going overboard into garishness. Animations for gestures and actions are fun and sometimes surprising, but don't seem to bog down the system or get in the way.

Put simply, it's a clean, quick, and refreshing meld of form and function.

Notifications: Catching Up in Functionality

Over the last few years, the concept of notifications -- and everything relating to the notifications center, quick settings, and lockscreen -- has evolved one of the most important features of a smartphone. It makes sense: Notifications are a core aspect for social media, automating tasks, and a large amount of what we find "smart" about smartphones.

But as Apple has improved its notifications features, lockscreen, and notification drawer, Google has lagged behind. Even relatively old versions of Samsung's TouchWiz UI layer for Android (which is a mixed blessing at best) got the concept of quick settings, lockscreens, and a more functional notifications pull-down menu long before Google started catching up with standard Android.

With Android Lollipop, Google finally got notifications right... mostly.

The Lockscreen

First off, the Lollipop lockscreen is much more functional, displaying a lockscreen version of the pull-down notifications center where users can go straight to an update, message, or anything else -- be it a system setting, missed call, or app update -- with a simple double tap.

Similarly, you can swipe them away individually or expand collapsed notifications for more information. Swiping up unlocks the phone (if you don't have a lock) and pulling down on the whole thing brings up quick settings. It's all easy and immediately apparent how to operate after a few seconds of fiddling.

Quick Settings

The quick settings in the notifications center represent a vast improvement over previous Android versions, especially because you can reach it quickly without using Google's previous, awkward two-finger pull gesture.

Now, just two swipes down from the top of the screen and you're looking at the quick settings menu, which includes WiFi, Bluetooth, Location, Airplane mode, and rotation lock. But there's also now the long-wanted screen brightness slider, a Chromecast toggle, and finally -- thank you Google! -- a flashlight button built in.

Priority Mode

While notifications are all-important, so is controlling them. Now, built into the volume slider that pops up at the top of the screen when you press the volume button, there's a fast way to choose the way you want your smartphone to behave.

(Photo : Nexus 6 Screenshot: Robert Schoon)

Three straightforward settings appear under the volume slider: "None," "Priority," and "All." Within a few taps, you can set your phone to be completely polite and not make a peep for any reason -- even turning the alarm off -- or you can narrow down notifications so only the most important ones (customized by you) get through.

And within both quick settings, you can set them to expire within a specified amount of time, so you won't wake up late for work after a trip to the opera.

Not Quite There Yet

For all of the great new features to quickly navigate and control notifications, there are a few things I still missed.

Widgets on the lockscreen, for one, are gone. Sure, you can control things like music playback from the lockscreen notifications list, but it would be nice to have a little more power and customizability over the lockscreen using widgets. Still, the (laudable) focus on simplicity in Android 5.0 probably precluded lockscreen widgets from making it into the mix.

Quick settings are obviously much improved, but some features, like the WiFi or Bluetooth toggle, are just that: a toggle switch. You cannot launch detailed settings with a long-press, but rather have to reach up to the very top-left corner to enter the general settings app. It seems like an obvious feature to have (again, TouchWiz) that Google decided against for some reason beyond me.

Enhanced Security: Inside and Out

Over the past couple of years, high profile hackings, surveillance revelations, and just plain personal experience has alerted the vast majority of smartphone users that paying attention to your device's security is not just important, it's a new necessity of modern life.

Lollipop comes with enhanced security, from the most technical to simple convenient new features. For example, Android 5.0 comes with encryption options right out of the box, though it's been reported to slow down the performance of smartphones.

But out of the technical realm, there are new features that help you quickly control who gets to access what part of your smartphone, including multiple accounts with guest mode, a trusted devices feature, and screen pinning.

Multiple Accounts with Guest Mode

Multiple accounts aren't new to Android, but the option to quickly switch into guest mode -- which allows you to share your phone with someone temporarily while it restricts access to the main account's media, settings, and other essentials.

Screen Pinning

Similarly, screen pinning is a fast way to let someone use one specific app without being able to navigate anywhere else. For example, if someone wants to borrow your phone just to make a call, you can pin the "Phone" screen right in the recent apps menu, so only the Phone app is available -- not messages, email, settings, or any other app.

This clever feature could be a worry-saver for parents who want to sit their kids down with a game on their phone without having to fret about what else might get messed up.

One thing though: to get out of a pinned screen, all you have to do is hold the back button and recent apps button at the same time. Heck, all you have to really do is try to hit the home button and a message tells you how to get out of the pinned screen.

(Photo : Nexus 6 Screenshot: Robert Schoon)

Once that's common knowledge, a pin code-enabled version of this great new feature might be necessary for it to maintain its utility for this use case, though it could still be a handy way to avoid accidentally exiting out of in-use apps like games or media.

Trusted Devices

Like overusing simple passwords for online accounts, too many people don't actually lock their lockscreens because it's inconvenient, though they should know better (yours truly, guilty as charged).

Trusted devices -- the ability to set your phone to stay unlocked as long as it's in proximity of a paired devices like a smartwatch or computer -- encourages locking the phone by limiting that inconvenience only when you're away from your personal secure zone.

It's another example of intuitive design, since having your computer, smartwatch, or even a Bluetooth-enabled car (running) in proximity of your phone naturally implies you are in control of the device and don't need to enter a password.

Availability and Final Thoughts

There are too many new or redesigned aspects of this massive Android improvement to go into detail about each. And while there are still improvements and features that Google should add -- not to mention the official Google app herd still in need of culling -- Android 5.0 represents a bright future for the company's mobile division.

With Android 5.0, Google has caught up with Apple's iOS 8 in aesthetics and elegant functionality, but it also has laid the path for the future of a powerful mobile OS that's easy to use, secure, and easily connected across an increasingly pervasive Android ecosystem -- "Android Everywhere" -- that now includes televisions, watches, wristbands, computers, and soon cars and your home.

Suffice to say: if you have the option to get a new Lollipop-running smartphone or download the Android 5.0 update anytime soon, it's worth it.

Can you download Android 5.0 Lollipop?

If you have a Nexus, pure Google Moto or any Google Play Edition device, you should be able to by now. If you have a 2014 flagship smartphone like the HTC One M8 or Samsung Galaxy S5, you should be able to by early Spring 2015, at the latest.

Slightly older devices like the Samsung Galaxy S4, Note 3, or HTC One M7 or One Mini 2 are likely to get the update a little after the current flagships.

For everyone else with pre-2013, older or "mid-tier" devices, we'll just have to cross our fingers or start saving up for a new phone. Oh, there's one other thing you can do: Check back with Latin Post Tech for news on Android 5.0 Lollipop update rollouts as they happen!

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