No official Nougat for Snapdragon 800/801 devices because of Qualcomm?

[Ry]

No Nougat for your Android phone? You might want to blame Qualcomm

According to ROM developer and HTC tipster LlabTooFeR, Qualcomm is not releasing updates to the graphic drivers on the Snapdragon 800 and the Snapdragon 801 chipsets. The former powered the HTC One (M8) and the Nexus 5 which is why those two phones won't be updated to Android 7.0.

Some of the other handsets affected by Qualcomm's decision include the Samsung Galaxy S5, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, LG G3, the Sony Xperia Z3 and other models. Most, if not all of these handsets, probably would have had no problems running Android 7.0. But alas, we will never know. And even if Qualcomm had decided to update the drivers, there is no guarantee that there would have been manufacturer support for the update.

https://twitter.com/LlabTooFeR/status/768737216566792192

..we saw a similar situation with TI which is why the Galaxy Nexus had such a short support life.

 

[Markxmlx]

Yeah, I guess Qualcomm no longer sees a good reason to support devices that are barely two years old.

 

[anon(9419666)]

Many of those phone have already have two years of software support, so even if Qualcomm release the driver, the OEMs won't update them.

 

[Vyrlokar]

And that's why Google needs to put some pressure on the component manufacturers. If they made them release the drivers as open source, and/or release documentation on them (maybe when they decide to drop support?), someone else could pick them up and make them work with up to date OS versions.

 

[pbike908]

And that's why Google needs to put some pressure on the component manufacturers. If they made them release the drivers as open source, and/or release documentation on them (maybe when they decide to drop support?), someone else could pick them up and make them work with up to date OS versions.

Yeah, I concur. I really think devices should be supported for a minimum of 3 years. Even Google is only officially supporting Nexus devices for 2 years which I think is sad. Have to give one to the Apple folks for supporting IOS devices for 3 or more years.

 

[mru007]

If my Galaxy Note 4 will get Android 7.0 Nougat (let's guess, before February 2017, I hope) I would keep this phone for another year. This phone is such a beast even in 2016

 

[Markxmlx]

If my Galaxy Note 4 will get Android 7.0 Nougat (let's guess, before February 2017, I hope) I would keep this phone for another year. This phone is such a beast even in 2016

I wouldn't count on it arriving before the second half of 2017, if at all. It's certainly a shame, though.

 

[Ry]

Jerry wrote about it too.

Android 7.0 and the Snapdragon 800 — a conundrum http://www.androidcentral.com/Android-7-snapdragon-800