Nexus 4 Android 5.0 Lollipop Update Will Not Include Camera Features

If you are a Nexus owner then the last few weeks have been quite eventful for you. This is in respect of the Android 5.0 (Lollipop) update which has been landing. All the Nexus range does seem to have been updated now although there was quite massive discrepancies on when different Nexus devices received the update. This was probably the first sign that although they are all Nexus devices, they are not necessarily all equal Nexus devices. This leads us on to today’s news. If you are a Google Nexus 4 owner then you might be interested to know that not all the features sent out in the Lollipop update will be on their way to your device.

The Nexus 4 Android 5.0 update landed back on November 14th. That said, the Nexus 4 was one of the later devices to receive the Android 5.0.1 update which only landed on December 10th. One of the newly added features to come on Lollipop was enhancements to the camera functions compared to KitKat. These included a new API update which offered greater control and access to camera features like the output of full RAW files and full manual camera controls. However, it now seems that these additional camera features will not be available on the Nexus 4.

The new features were bundled into the new ‘Camera2 API’ and a number of Nexus 4 owners were noted asking the question on the Google Developers Issue Tracker site as to whether their device will receive the update. In what seems to be an official response from a Google employee, the reply post stated very clearly that the Nexus 4 will not include the additional camera features “Unfortunately, the Nexus 4 will not be updated beyond LEGACY camera2 level support.” The post then went on to further explain this is due to “Its hardware and firmware were not designed to support the full feature set provided by camera2, including manual controls and DNG support, and such support cannot be added retroactively to it.” It is probably also worth noting that the post also advised that the Google Nexus 9 will receive the manual control support but not the RAW file support. The post did advise that both the Nexus 5 and 6 will come with full support of the new features. You can read the Google response in full by clicking the source link below. It is understandable that due to the age of the Nexus 4 that all features might not be compatible, but it is never nice to hear your device will not be receiving certain features.

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