Ars Technica - Android Marshmallow review

[zMeul]

source: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/10/android-6-0-marshmallow-thoroughly-reviewed/

 

The Good

• The new home screen adds tons of genuinely useful features. App Search, predictive apps, vertical scrolling, and the uninstall shortcut are all great time savers.
• The new permissions system lets users give informed consent to access their data while keeping them in the loop about breaking things from permission denial. Developers get to have a dialog with the user about why they need a permission, and old apps are fed fake data so they can be denied access without crashing.
• "Adoptable Storage" finally makes SD cards as good as internal storage. Now if only there were Marshmallow devices with SD cards.
• The fingerprint API isn't groundbreaking even among the Android devices, but it's the kind of ecosystem building that only Google can do.

The Bad

• There still isn't auto rotate support for the home screen. Google teased us in the developer preview but the feature was cut.
• The new permissions page is a great first step, but it doesn't list all of the access to the system an app actually has. Special settings like "Notification Access," access to the accessibilities framework, and more are scattered all over the settings.
• Apps can opt out of power saving features like Doze and App Standby just by changing their priority settings. We don't trust developers to play by the rules.

The Ugly

• There is still no solution for getting Marshmallow out to the billion+ devices out there.

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this is my biggest caveat with Android: if you're not on a Nexus device, there's no guarantee of a security update

 

Android is far, far behind the competition when it comes to device security. The only real solution we can see is a Windows Update-style system that can send centralized updates to every device. This would require architecting the way OEMs and carriers handle software, but something needs to change so that there's a real update and security solution for every Android device and every Android user. If you've got a Nexus device, the Android security update speed is still slow thanks to the rollout system, but at least it exists. For everyone else, maybe there will be something for you in the next version.

this is by far the biggest flaw in the whole Android echo-system and it might end up biting google in the rear end

as I said here: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/461484-microsoft-applies-for-patent-on-multi-os-smartphone/?view=findpost&p=6193730 , I would chose a Windows phone over Android one because of this; despite Windows' phone OS utter garbage GUI

[qwertywarrior]

should have been called android 5.2 this isnt a big change

[s3ns3]

should have been called android 5.2 this isnt a big change

let us move away from the bad reputation that lollipop gave to android.as soon as possible

[Doobeedoo]

Would wish that updating system is same for all phones like it's for Google Nexus devices.

[CatCloud]

Will 6.0 let me delete pre installed bloatware? I just want my phone to be clean and pure.

[Mew]

 

Apps can opt out of power saving features like Doze and App Standby just by changing their priority settings. We don't trust developers to play by the rules.

 

Wow, so Android's battery problems are still gonna be there. 

 

Edit: I guess it makes sense for navigation apps to not want to Doze or go into standby, but Google needs to be a lot stricter than this. 

[bobhays]

let us move away from the bad reputation that lollipop gave to android.as soon as possible

I don't understand what was so wrong with lollipop. I have it on a 100 dollar phone and it runs ok. Not ridiculous but acceptable. I have almost nothing but good things to say about it.