The mobile arm of the top PC maker, Lenovo has reportedly announced to roll out the Android v4.4 KitKat to P780 and select S-series smartphones in India this week.
"After rolling out updates for Vibe Z, Vibe X and S860 last month, we are now bringing Android 4.4 to six of our mid-range smartphones at various price points. These updates are poised to take the user experience of these phone to a different level. In the last two years in India, we have grown leaps and bounds launching over 18 smartphones, each addressing specific user requirement, and we aim to continue this growth trajectory with newer models and iterations," Lenovo India, Director (Smartphone), Sudhin Mathur, was quoted by NDTV as saying.
The company has claimed that the firmware update will be released to six devices- Lenovo S930, S920, S820, S660, S650 and P780 and rollout will commence this week in phases and is expected to end within September.
The chocolate-wafer flavoured Android OS update is expected to bring in enhanced features such as more organized message grouping, Hangouts (all sms, mms and voice messages under one roof), quick access to settings, colourful Emoji characters on keyboard, enhanced voice search, Quickoffice word document app, wireless cloud printing (only with select HP printers) and custom Vibe UI improvements in terms of caller id interface, simplified access, parental mode, Premium DOit apps and other stability and performance enhancing tweaks.
Brief Description and Key Features of Android v4.4 KitKat OS:
Improved Caller-ID: If a user receives a call from an unknown number, the phone will look for matches on the Internet with local listings via Google Maps.
Priority Contacts: The new OS empowers the phone to automatically prioritize contact list for easy access, based on the frequency of the peoples' contacts to which users talk.
Enhanced Google Mobile Service (GMS) Apps: This application helps users to automatically back-up photos and video clips. He/she also can create, view, share, rename Google Docs and files.
Enhanced Message Grouping: Google has brought in some improvements to the new Hangouts app; now, users can find all their text SMSs and MMSs, audio and video call details all at one place. He/she can also share location and send animated GIFs.
Emoji Characters: Initially, users had to install a third party app to use colourful characters in their SMS. Now, with KitKat update, the keypad comes pre-loaded with native Japanese Emoji emotion icons.
NFC and Wireless Printing: Google's new OS comes with a new Quickoffice app where-in people can create and store word documents in cloud storage as well as print files wirelessly on NFC-enabled HP printers.
Location Menu: This integrated location menu enables users to easily activate GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile networks, while simultaneously keeping a tab on the battery consumption by the location service based apps.
Immersive Display: To enhance the entertainment factor, the new OS comes with immersive mode, where the status bar and navigation buttons disappear in to the background while you play music, games and read e-books. Users can just swipe the edge of the screen to bring back the utility buttons.
Multi-tasking: With an efficient memory management, users can multi-task by opening multiple applications; listen to music while you browse through the Internet.
Performance: Like all software updates, the new KitKat OS enhances smartphone's performance as well as efficient RAM management, leading to increase in battery life.
