My phone, the Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra, had a system upgrade offered a few days ago and I did it. I was surprised to find that it was an upgrade to Android Oreo (8.0), the most recently released version. I had hoped they'd do this since other Sony phones had been upgraded months back to Oreo. Android N, just went to beta 2, so it won't be the most recent version for long, but I'm still glad they did it. It's nice to see that Sony, and some other manufacturers (like Samsung) are dedicated to providing at least on upgrade to Android.
It seems be snappier in performance but the major thing I've noticed is a redesign of the settings area. It's supposed to make it easier to find things and maybe it does for new users. For users like me that are used to the old system, it's more confusing. They've basically lumped things together.
They do have better support of VPNs, one that has a built-in kill-switch in case your VPN client dies unexpected and you don't want to connect without it. Before this, the VPN client that I use, PIA, had the option for killswitch but that only worked while it was running.
I can't seem to find the area where you can choose what number to display when calling or texting someone anymore. This might be important because on the Freedom network, phones don't seem to show my number in settings so I'm not sure it's broadcasting it. Before the upgrade, I had set it to my number just to make sure, but on election day, I was calling supporters to remind me them to vote and I had turned it off. Forgot to turn it back on and only remembered after the upgrade. Oops.
For this that are more curious, here's a list of features in Android Oreo. Honestly, none of them appear to affect me but better battery usage is always good. Nothing earth-shattering here, but that seems to be usual for Android upgrades:
QuoteIt contains a number of major features, including notification grouping, picture-in-picture support for video, performance improvements and battery usage optimization, and support for autofillers, Bluetooth 5, system-level integration with VoIP apps, wide color gamuts, and Wi-Fi Aware. Android Oreo also introduces two major platform features: Android Go â€" a software distribution of the operating system for low-end devices â€" and support for implementing a hardware abstraction layer.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Oreo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Oreo)
I'm curious everyone else's experience. Have your Android phones offered upgrades to new Android releases?
Moto G 3rd Gen, still stuck at Android 6 Marshmallow.
ZTE Axion mini (Bell Canada edition), still stuck at Android 6 Marshmallow.
How old are these phones? I picked up my Sony phone August of 2017. It had Nougat (7.1.1) on it originally.
I believe the Moto G 3rd Gen is a 2016 model. It came with Android 5 and kept nagging me to upgrade to Android 6. When I did do the upgrade, that was when one of the apps I had on the phone, stopped working. I never was able to get that app to work again,
The ZTE Axion mini (Bell Canada system phone) is a 2017 model and came with Android 6 and appears to be stuck at that version.
If an upgrade makes your phone worse like an app no longer working, you should be able to do a factory reset still. It sounds like Moto is at least trying with giving you the one upgrade. ZTE makes budget phones, I believe, so might not get an upgrade there but you never know. Maybe.
My Alcatel tablet is still on Lollipop. I don't think there was ever an upgrade for it.
I have to say that I've been very happy with my Sony phone. Makes my tablet look really sad in comparison of how much faster it is. My wife's tablet makes it look sad, too.
My Samsung S7 on Bell was also upgraded a few weeks ago.
I do not like the new screen unlocking process - it takes like 2 steps now. - it is a pain.
As for battery life I see no difference.
Also they they changed the app grouping in the folders to hold more apps ... It holds 20 now. But now the folders on your home page only show 9 apps - when you open the folder you can see upto 20 apps
but they show in different positions in the folder.
.
Not sure it is any faster..
One nice thing I noticed is that on the "About Phone" page it displays clearly the phone #, model, serial and imei info is a simple chart.
Quote from: BrianP on July 09, 2018, 04:33:42 PM
One nice thing I noticed is that on the "About Phone" page it displays clearly the phone #, model, serial and imei info is a simple chart.
I think that might be a Samsung enhancement. Either that or Sony on my phone changed it because I don't see a simple little chart, just the regular look.
I haven't really noticed better battery life either but I think that'd probably be hard to notice unless it was really substantial. The change has been pretty subtle for me except for how they've grouped various settings now. I'll probably be using the Seach in settings more often to find things.
What are the two steps you've noticed for unlocking? Do you have to swipe before you get the unlock screen? I think mine does this although I don't think about it a lot. I use Smart Unlock at home which usually works.
So BrianP, is your Samsung now at Android 8 (Oreo)?
My ZTE Axion 7 mini has a fingerprint reader spot, on its back face, to gain access to the phone but I have not used it.
Yes I have samsung s7 with oreo (8)
Now i have to hit the lock icon on the locked screen, then I have to swipe up to get the pattern entry screen. Before I would just have swipe up on the locked screen to get the unlocking pattern screen.
My ZTE Axon mini is running Nougat, unlike Bill's, but mine is the USA model whereas his is a Canadian model that might have been specially made for one of the phone companies. ZTE announced around March that an Oreo upgrade will be available, but I have yet to see it.
Quote from: BrianP on July 11, 2018, 08:21:39 PM
Now i have to hit the lock icon on the locked screen, then I have to swipe up to get the pattern entry screen. Before I would just have swipe up on the locked screen to get the unlocking pattern screen.
Interesting. I just tried this and I don't get this behaviour though I also have Oreo. I can swipe or tap unlock and either brings up the security pinpad. I tried it with a pattern, too and same thing. But perhaps it is an enhancement that Sony added. Odd.