Moto X 2013 Android 5.0 Lollipop Update Delayed, Chipset to Blame

When Google announced Android 5.0 Lollipop back in October 2014, Motorola was one of the first OEMs to promise that the new firmware update will be made available for their flagship devices, including the Moto X 2013. Unfortunately, the Moto X 2013 Android 5.0 Lollipop update hasn’t been released for the public yet. Now we finally know why it takes so long for the update to be pushed to users.

Ayan C. has asked Motorola Support on Twitter whether the Moto X 2013 will get updated to Android 5.0 or Android 5.1. According to @motorolasupport, the Moto X 2013 Android 5.0 Lollipop update will be released to the public, but it’s not ready for prime-time yet as “the chipset requires more effort.” Unfortunately, they failed to reveal when the new firmware update will be made available for the users.

I remind you that the Moto X 2013 is powered by Motorola’s X8 mobile computing system which is basically a custom version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 Pro chipset. Besides the 4 cores of the Adreno 320 GPU, Motorola’s X8 SoC also brings 2 application processor cores and 2 low-power cores for natural language and contextual computing.

After Motorola manages to optimize Lollipop for the X8 SoC underpinning their 1st gen Moto X, the new software update will be pushed to uses in waves. The unlocked units will most likely be the first to receive the new firmware, followed shortly after by the carrier-locked models. For what it’s worth, when your terminal becomes eligible to receive the OTA update you will be notified by a system update message. You just need to tap on it and follow the on-screen instructions. You can also check for the update manually under Settings > About phone > Software updates > Check now.

Lollipop is a major update and we are pretty sure that most Moto X owners are craving for it. The new software arrives with a new UI called Material Design, multi-user support for phones, ART (Android Runtime), improved battery statistics, battery saver mode, Screen Pinning, Smart Lock, lock screen notifications, revamped notifications bar and quick settings, and more.