Android L for the Samsung Galaxy S5 given an early preview

Android L for the Samsung Galaxy S5 given an early preview

The Samsung Galaxy S5 is almost assuredly going to be updated to Android L. The problem is, we don’t know when that update is going to come. Fortunately for the more impatient among us, we don’t have to wait to get an early preview of what that update will look like.

SamMobile has gotten hold of an early build of Android L for the Samsung Galaxy S5 — build LRW58J — that gives us an idea of how Samsung is planning to tweak Android L for its own hardware. Some aspects of Android L remain unchanged from the build that we previewed earlier this year, including notifications on the lock screen and Heads-Up Notifications for things like incoming calls and the like.

Unsurprisingly, Samsung has customized many aspects of Android L as well. Some of those tweaks are white user interface makeovers for Samsung’s TouchWiz apps a reduction in the number of Android L lock screen notifications from four to two.

SamMobile says that the build of Android L that it’s showing off is too buggy to be used as a daily driver, so it’s not going to make it available to us all. The site has shared a number of screenshots of the update, though, as well as a hands-on video that you can find below.

Overall the Galaxy S5’s Android L update looks like a nice mix of vanilla Android L and TouchWiz, which isn’t surprising. Of course, it’s worth noting that the update’s official launch is likely still a ways out, so there are sure to be more design tweaks and performance improvements to come.

What do you think of Samsung’s flavor of Android L so far?