[Billy_William]

Updates to Android are completely different to those on iOS. Why compare them?

[jonmorris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikerlad

Updated my Nexus 6P. Just the Lloyds banking app that doesn't work so far.

Just been updated this afternoon!

[gomezz]

I am curious to see how long before the Blackberry phones are updated.

[Everything Goes]

Sony Phones to get Nougat

Ironically the only phone Sony allowed Beta version of Nougat the Z3 is not on the list and there is no plans to do update it either. Sony's line of lower to mid tier devices are missing as well. One example is the Xperia M4 Aqua, which launched almost a year and a half ago and was only updated to Marshmallow a few weeks ago.

Xperia Z3+
Xperia Z4 Tablet
Xperia Z5
Xperia Z5 Compact
Xperia Z5 Premium
Xperia X
Xperia XA
Xperia XA Ultra
Xperia X Performance*.


The asterisk next to the X Performance notes the following: "Software rollouts are a phased process – timing and availability will vary by market and/or operator. Most models supported but some operator/market exceptions will apply."

http://www.neowin.net/news/sony-publ...z3-owners-sigh

http://blogs.sonymobile.com/2016/08/...id-7-0-nougat/

[retrodj]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Everything Goes

It's very unlikely Nougat will be available on the S5. Samsung pretty much kill support 2 years after release and the phone is over 2 years old.

It's still one of the best phones I've had. The S3 was starting to die a death around 18 months in to my contract. This time around the S5 is still going strong.

[errea]

I've got the S3 LTE and it is still going strong 3 replacement batteries later.
It got an update to Android 4.4.4 & with 2GB RAM runs everything I want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by retrodj

It's still one of the best phones I've had. The S3 was starting to die a death around 18 months in to my contract. This time around the S5 is still going strong.

[blueisthecolour]

Haven't had any update come through on my Nexus 6P so far. I'm with Three.

I can't really remember what the difference was between the last versions anyway - all they do is mess about with the settings each time.

[jonmorris]

If you can't wait, sign up for the beta at http://g.co/androidbeta and at this stage you'll get the final version without waiting.

You may then need to opt out as I believe you may find you get further beta releases for 7.1, which may contain bugs.

I'd also say that I had issues with my 6P - Doze appeared to stop working completely - so I did a full reset after installing the final 7.0 and now I'm getting the battery life I remember from when I first got the phone. In fact, the battery life is as good as Google kept saying it would be (and I was somewhat sceptical about).

[FiendishlyC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

If you can't wait, sign up for the beta at http://g.co/androidbeta and at this stage you'll get the final version without waiting.

You may then need to opt out as I believe you may find you get further beta releases for 7.1, which may contain bugs.

I'd also say that I had issues with my 6P - Doze appeared to stop working completely - so I did a full reset after installing the final 7.0 and now I'm getting the battery life I remember from when I first got the phone. In fact, the battery life is as good as Google kept saying it would be (and I was somewhat sceptical about).

I tried this trick after reading this on the tech forums. I'm now running Android Nougat beta with no sign of an update!

[Thine Wonk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gomezz

I am curious to see how long before the Blackberry phones are updated.

Are they still going?

[moox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

Are they still going?

They recently announced another Android based phone.

BBOS is on life support, though.

[blueisthecolour]

Is there a difference between a 'full reset' and a normal reset?

[Gigabit]

I never thought I'd say this but...I'm thinking of buying an iPhone.

[beans0ntoast]

My Galaxy Tab A keeps notifying me if I want to upgrade to Marshmallow (6.0) or not... so far I'm staying on Lollipop (5.0) but will upgrade to 6.0 if needs must!

My S4 is still on Jellybean 4.2 but I can upgrade it to Lollipop 5.0 if app support suddenly gets dropped for 4.2. Anything older than that is iffy though; Android 4.0 and 4.1 are losing app support on some apps (a bit like Gingerbread a year and a half ago) and Gingerbread 2.3 now is ancient and I'm surprised there are any apps for it at all!

[gomezz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moox

They recently announced another Android based phone.

BBOS is on life support, though.

Their USP is supposedly a hardened version of the OS (although the U is questionable given that is what Blackphone also offer). If they add QI wireless charging then it *may* become an option if and when I need a new phone.

[Denco1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Everything Goes

Sony Phones to get Nougat

Ironically the only phone Sony allowed Beta version of Nougat the Z3 is not on the list and there is no plans to do update it either. Sony's line of lower to mid tier devices are missing as well. One example is the Xperia M4 Aqua, which launched almost a year and a half ago and was only updated to Marshmallow a few weeks ago.

Xperia Z3+
Xperia Z4 Tablet
Xperia Z5
Xperia Z5 Compact
Xperia Z5 Premium
Xperia X
Xperia XA
Xperia XA Ultra
Xperia X Performance*.


The asterisk next to the X Performance notes the following: "Software rollouts are a phased process – timing and availability will vary by market and/or operator. Most models supported but some operator/market exceptions will apply."

http://www.neowin.net/news/sony-publ...z3-owners-sigh

http://blogs.sonymobile.com/2016/08/...id-7-0-nougat/

It turns out a large reason for older devices not getting Nougat is that Google placed strict limits on GPU compatibility, needing OpenGL ES 3.1 or Vulkan. Anything with Adreno 3xx isn't compatible so won't receive an official update.
So for Qualcomm devices that's SD410, 610, 805 and above.

[Gigabit]

It's actually that Qualcomm won't update the 800/801 to support OpenGL 3.1.

[Denco1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gigabit

It's actually that Qualcomm won't update the 800/801 to support OpenGL 3.1.

Fair enough, but should OpenGL 3.1 compatibility been crucial for Nougat support? I don't really know much about this, but it seems over the top for me.
Manufacturers like Motorola will only have a handful of compatible products, even the Moto G 3rd Gen is too old.
That leaves just the Moto Z, X Style, X Play, X Force and Moto Maxx as potential candidates.

[Everything Goes]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gigabit

It's actually that Qualcomm won't update the 800/801 to support OpenGL 3.1.

Do you have a link for this?

Apple stopped support for CPU's below the A5 with iOS 10. Hence no support for the iPhone 4S and several other devices.

Given that the iPhone 7 will likely have the A10 processor that would give 5 years support of iOS updates as a rule of thumb.

[Denco1]

HTC Developer
https://twitter.com/LlabTooFeR/statu...37216566792192
Although MSM8974 has been dropped from AOSP, it's unclear whether MSM8916 has been. Not supporting 800/801 isn't awful, but not supporting 410 is.

[Anika Hanson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Everything Goes

Do you have a link for this?

Apple stopped support for CPU's below the A5 with iOS 10. Hence no support for the iPhone 4S and several other devices.

Given that the iPhone 7 will likely have the A10 processor that would give 5 years support of iOS updates as a rule of thumb.

It's disgusting that phones released in 2014 (S5, LG G5) won't be getting updated in 2016. Yes it might be that the older snapdragon chip can't support vulkan but they need to make a modified version of the OS without the Vulkan API. Apple update their devices for 4-5 years and if there is a feature an older phone can't support it's simply left out. It shouldn't be an all or nothing approach.

[Stuart_h]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anika Hanson

It's disgusting that phones released in 2014 (S5, LG G5) won't be getting updated in 2016. Yes it might be that the older snapdragon chip can't support vulkan but they need to make a modified version of the OS without the Vulkan API. Apple update their devices for 4-5 years and if there is a feature an older phone can't support it's simply left out. It shouldn't be an all or nothing approach.

Sadly that's a manufacturer "thing" not an android issue. As per another thread it's worth noting that android is being split more and more I to its component apps, allowing most visible features to be updated as regularly as they want - launcher, dialler, calendar, contacts, play store, play services etc etc.

It does make the actual uogrades less exciting maybe, as most of the nougat changes are under the bonnet (battery life improvements, full split screen functionality etc).

Almost any android phone out there can go and grab the latest launcher, the latest messaging app, maps, music player, book reader, service framework (?) from the Play store - and even update the Play store itself

[Everything Goes]

There seems to be some debate about this.

Quote:

This major change, as good as it may be, is apparently the reason why Qualcomm has decided not to release graphics drivers for the Snapdragon 800/801 CPUs, making official updates for devices powered by that chipset much more difficult.

https://9to5google.com/2016/08/25/ru...he-vulkan-api/

Quote:

GFX APIs can't be the reason SD800 devices aren't getting 7.0.
N9 has 7.0, but no Vulkan.
General Mobile 4G has 7.0, but no OpenGL 3.1

https://twitter.com/RonAmadeo/status/768872153106092032

[Everything Goes]

HTC breaks Android upgrade promise

HTC is going to break its 15 day upgrade promise for the One A9. When HTC launched the device, it promised that it would issue updates within 15 days of Google releasing them to Nexus devices. Instead they plan to release Nougat in Q4 2016 if you want to believe them.

http://www.neowin.net/news/htc-to-br...for-the-one-a9

[blueisthecolour]

Still haven't received an update for my Nexus 6p