Android L build for Samsung Galaxy S5 gets previewed

By all accounts, Android L's release is coming soon, perhaps even this month (or in November). We've known for months what Google wants its next mobile OS version to look like, since the company's already presented its new Material Design. But what about the different phone makers? They've so far gotten used to modifying the looks of stock Android quite a lot, so it's interesting to see how they'll approach this version.

And now we can get a look at what Samsung's interpretation of Android L will look like, as someone got their hands on a pre-release build of the new OS for the Galaxy S5. This build is said to be very slow and buggy, so there's clearly a lot of work that Samsung still has to do (and this is the reason why it hasn't been made available for download).

Android L for Samsung Galaxy S5 screenshots

If you were hoping that Samsung would give up on its TouchWiz UI overlay entirely, well, you were wrong. Samsung's Android L doesn't look like Google's Android L - not entirely. There are many similarities, though, and it's nice to see Samsung finally change some design bits that have been left pretty much unaltered for years.

Take for example the Settings menu. This is now white, and not blue. On the other hand, the quick settings in the notification shade look very similar to those in Samsung's KitKat release for the Galaxy S5.

More screenshots showing Android L on the Galaxy S5

The good thing is that Samsung's built-in apps (such as Dialer, Memo, Clock, and so on) have been redesigned according to Material Design guidelines (though they aren't finished yet, as they have no animations at this point).

The new lock screen from Google's Android L makes an appearance in Samsung's vision, but sadly the amount of notifications it can show is only two (compared to four in the stock OS).

To get a better idea about what you can expect from Samsung's Android L update for the Galaxy S5, watch the video below.

It's great to see Samsung already working on bringing the next version of Android to its flagship device. This should hopefully mean that there won't be a huge waiting period from when Google releases Android L to when the S5 will receive this update. In fact we have previously heard that it would roll out by early December.

Source