As Neowin reports, LG announced the coming launch in a press release today. As with last year, Polish users of the company’s flagship device, the G4, will get the upgrade first from next week. It will then come to G4 owners in other markets across Europe before becoming available on other devices and in different markets over the coming weeks.
Chris Yie, vice president and head of marketing communications at LG, said the speedy roll-out — only one week after Google released it to the owners of Nexus devices — has been made possible by close collaboration with the search giant and Android creators.
He wrote: “By working closely with Google, LG has been able to bring Android 6.0 to the G4 ahead of any of our competitors. While speed alone isn’t an indicator of great service, it does go a long way toward giving consumers the confidence that LG is committed to its existing customers first.”
Android 6.0 “Marshmallow” includes several new features and many refinements over its Lollipop predecessor. The launcher and home screens have been revamped, notifications simplified and the volume controls restored to their old state of individual sliders for ringtone, media and alarms. Google Now has become more intelligent and can deliver contextually-appropriate information inside of apps while new battery saving and privacy features improve on some of the biggest long-standing issues with Android.
Contrary to what the company claims, LG is not actually the “world’s first” manufacturer to start Android M upgrades as Google began rolling it out to owners of existing Nexus devices — including the LG-built Nexus 5 — last week. It is the first hardware manufacturer that operates independently of Google to do so though.
Other handset vendors are expected to announce availability for their own flagship devices over the next few weeks. As with every Android roll-out, the updates will be coming excruciatingly slowly for those who like to have the latest software as manufacturers have to make their own customisations work with the new OS. Inevitably, some devices will be missed out altogether.
LG hasn’t stated which of its phones will end up running Marshmallow or how long owners will be waiting for. The G3’s roll-out, starting around the same time last year, wasn’t complete until January so it seems probable that the release cadence is likely to slow after LG’s initial flying start. After the G4, it’s likely that the recently-announced dual-screen V10 will get the update next, followed by progressively lower-end devices.
