LG G4 First Non-Nexus Phone To Get Android 6.0 'Marshmallow' Update

The LG G4 will be the first non-Nexus phone in the world to receive the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update, which will arrive for LG G4 owners in Poland -- yeah, Poland -- as early as next week. People in other markets in Europe, Asia and the Americas will follow soon after that.

The new update contains a few significant features such as the Doze Mode, which should double standby time for the device, by shutting down most background processes when the phone is not in use.

Another highly demanded feature over the years has been the overhauled permissions system, which is now not just much more simplified, but it also gives users the ability to control which permissions an app can use. Access to the Internet can't be disabled through the permission system, which means in-app ads can't be blocked this way, either.

The Android 6.0 update also brings a silent feature for sound and vibrate mode, as well as a Do Not Disturb mode, which gives users control over which type of sound can be allowed to play when using it.

Usually, it takes many months for manufacturers to release a new major update to their devices, even though Google gives them early access to the OS. The delay is a combination of things, including companies not using big enough teams to support all of their devices in a timely manner and adding other features on top of the OS build that Google has just released, which could take months to develop and test.

Google helped this process significantly starting with Lollipop and the release of the "Preview" builds, because now OEMs can have an extra three or four months before the "final" build of the new Android version is out. This means that OEMs can start developing their new features in parallel and get them ready to ship soon after Google has released the final version.

This doesn't guarantee that we can now expect all OEMs to release their updates this soon, though, as some could still further stretch out their development time to include more features or more devices that will get the update at the same time.

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Lucian Armasu joined Tom’s Hardware in early 2014. He writes news stories on mobile, chipsets, security, privacy, and anything else that might be of interest to him from the technology world. Outside of Tom’s Hardware, he dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.

You can follow him at @lucian_armasu. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.