Thanks Steve, I've just checked it on on the nexus7 with lollipop - it's nice and solid.
In my case I never do a serial1 connect, the tablet is always listening and my handheld product is configured with an autoconnect to the tablet MAC on powerup.
So basically I can tun my product on, it connects to the tablet within 3 seconds of powerup, then when I turn the product off the tablet app informs me within 500ms that the product is not connected, and if I turn the product back on, I am reconnected within another 3 seconds.
I can't tell you how many hours I've spent trying to get that to work with no exceptions on the multitude of devices I've got. Champagne tonight methinks
I'll post my code snippets and strategy in due course in case it's of use to anyone.
Another question for you though - has lollipop slowed your nexus7 down ridiculously compared to KitKat? Mine is certainly sluggish.