Android has changed considerably since its birth but this year marks the biggest change for Android ever and it comes in the form of Lollipop. And while many Google fans await their Nexus devices, Motorola has jumped the gun with the rollout. They are already releasing Lollipop on several of their handsets, this Moto G for 2014, for example. So let’s take a sneak peek on what’s inside this Android 5.0 Lollipop for the brand new Moto G for 2014.

One of the largest changes for Android for this year is Material Design. You’ve heard it hundreds of times and the update for the Moto G brings it to the G. you first noticed from the new lock screen. You have all of your notifications that aren’t listed as private showing up and for the first time ever, you can interact with them right from the home screen. For example, you can dismiss notifications right from the home screen. You can double tap to go into them. And if you long press that notification, it will show what application has sent it.

Now we can get into the software and from the home screen front, it looks familiar but different in an Android Lollipop type of way. Compared to KitKat, you can see the differences on the on-screen buttons and even the icons. You can also see the new fonts being used on the operating system. Plus everything that opens in Lollipop has this animation showing where it’s coming from. And it feels like everything has some kind of texture and elevation. Opening the app drawer springs up this cool looking animation with a white background with all of your applications. Closing it back up has all the same effect.

Also new is the addition of Google Now to the left hand side. Trust me, it proves its usefulness really quickly. Another update to Lollipop include the widget placement. Before, widgets would go wildly into your home screens and changing the whole layout. But with Lollipop, everything just sort of works in a way you expect it to.

Next, we can take a look at the notification tray. A simple one-finger swipe will bring down a condensed settings tray with all of your notifications. Notifications all have such a good fluid motion and all of them feel like they are stacked on top of each other. Now if you do a two-finger swipe then, it will bring your settings options down. This is probably one of the best refinements to the settings in such a long time. Everything in settings is only a few clicks away. And a new addition is the brightness bar, which hides everything while you’re adjusting it.

The usual updates to the Google application are here including a more flat yet really colorful balance to just about all other applications like Gmail and even their new calendar application. Multi-tasking has also received a new update, including a TouchWiz-like but with all the animation and fluidity of Google with Material Design. But one minor note on multi-tasking: if you do activate it while you’re in landscape mode, nothing really happens. I kind of wish we had two rows or even a horizontal setup.

Also, there are new features to Lollipop; including multi-user support for phones and tons more. And we’ll definitely be sure to give you a full rundown in our full review of Android 5.0 Lollipop once we get our hands on the Nexus 6. But the update to Lollipop for the Moto G is probably the best update for this phone. This is a massively popular device all around the world and one that costs less than $200 and you can get Android 5.0 Lollipop, the latest version of Android. It makes the device feel fresh and new. All the animations, all the design elements, and all the new features make this a great update.

So that’s been a brief look at the 5.0 update on the Moto G. make sure to leave us some comments below of what you think.