The Sony Xperia Z3 and many other smartphones will be left without Android 7.0 Nougat

Google has already officially launched the new version of the Android operating system, known as Nougat, which is the seventh of how many we have seen since this software was launched for the first time. During the last days we have been learning about the update plans of some manufacturers, which as always will be quite slow, and we have also begun to know that Mobile devices or tablets will not receive their Android 7.0 Nougat ration at any time.

The list of devices that will not be able to be updated to the new version of Android is long, but nevertheless of all that list one terminal draws attention far above the rest and that will allow us to explain many things. We are talking about Sony Xperia Z3, which had received the first four developer previews, and will finally be left without receiving the final version of Android Nougat. The reasons are going to be known in this article, which will be revealing and will allow us to know many other terminals that will also be unable to update to the latest version of Google's operating system.

What are the reasons why the Sony Xperia Z3 will not receive Android Nougat?

Por el momento no official reasons are known for the non-update of the Sony Xperioa Z3 to Android 7.0 Nougat, given by Sony, but what we do know are the reasons given by Ola Olsson and Zingo Andersen, moderators of the Sony's Android concept initiative project that is used to carry out improvements in Sony's Xperia Z3 and Xperia Z3 Compact based on user opinion.

These reasons have to do mainly with the technical section and with the legal section. And it is that both the Sony Xperia Z3 and the Sony Xperia Z3 Compact mount a processor inside Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, which is no longer officially supported by Android AOSP, so it does not meet an important part of the requirements to be able to officially update to the new version of Android.

If we take a look at other terminals on the market, we find that a good number of devices mount both the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 and 800 processors, also affected. In this list of smartphones we find the following; Lenovo ZUK Z1, OnePlus X, Xiaomi Mi Note, ZTE Axon and ZTE Grand S3.

The origin of the problem

As you have read, any device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor will not be able to officially receive Android 7.0 Nougat and the drivers necessary for these two processors to work with the new version of Android have been eliminated from the code of the system. This will not mean that you cannot receive the new software in an extra official way, since any user can put those drivers in a more or less simple way, but it does leave you without the possibility of receiving Android 7.0 officially.

The problem is that not everything is as simple as it seems, and that is that if it did not take more than to incorporate a few drivers, any manufacturer could incorporate them, making modifications like those they make in their ROMs. However, a good number of conditions must be met to be able to bring Android 7.0 to a mobile device or tablet.

Any manufacturer that wants to have access to Google Aps, one of the great features of Android, is that it must comply with the terms of Google CTS. These are roughly the requirements, some of them technical, that each device must meet in order to access Google Aps.

In addition, Google also requires that the devices be compatible with OpenGL ES 3.1 or Vulkan graphics APIs. Connecting the dots we get to the GPUs that are not compatible with graphics APIs and among which we find the entire Adreno 300, Mali-400 or Mediatek family, which leaves us a long list of terminals that today would have fully received update to Android 7.0 Nougat.

Furthermore, the Adreno 300 family does not support OpenGL 3.1 due to technical limitations, while the Mali-400 family only supports OpenGL 2.0.

Here we show you the elongated list of mobile devices that today do not meet the requirements requested by Google and therefore could not be updated to the new Android 7.0 Nougat;

• Samsung: Galaxy J Max, Galaxy J2 (2016), Galaxy J2 Pro (2016), Galaxy J3 (2016), Galaxy Tab J, Galaxy J1, Galaxy K1 Nxt, Galaxy J1 (2016), Galaxy J5, Galaxy J5 (2016), Galaxy A3 (2016), Galaxy On7, Galaxy On7 Pro, Galaxy E5, Galaxy Grand Max, Galaxy S4 mini
• bc: Aquaris X5, Aquaris E5s
• ASUS: Zenfone Max, Zenfone 2 Laser, Zenfone Go, Live
• Motorola: Moto G (3rd Gen), Moto E (2nd Gen), Moto G4 Play, Moto G (2nd Gen, 4G)
• Xiaomi: Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi 2 Pro, Redmi Note Prime, My Note
• Lenovo: ZUK Z1, A6000, A6000 Plus, A6010, A6010 Plus, Phab, A1000, A5000, Vibe A, A1900
• OnePlus: OnePlus X
• LG: K10, G4 Stylus, Stylus 2, X Screen, X Style, K7, K4, Leon, G Stylo, Stylo 2, Spirit, G4c, Zero, K3, AKA, Tribute 2, Joy, K7, Magna, K5, Ray
• Huawei: Y6, Y625. Y635, SnapTo, P8 Lite, Y5II, Y3II, Honor 4C, Honor 5A, Y360, Honor Bee, Ascend Y540
• Alcatel: Pixi 4 (6) Pixi 4 (4), Pixi 3 (5.5), Pixi 3 (4.5), Pixi 3 (3.5), Pixi 3 (4), Pop 4, Pop Star, Idol 3 (4.7), Fierce XL, Go play
• Acer: Liquid Z220, Liquid Z320, Liquid Z330, Liquid Z520, Liquid Zest
• Sony: Xperia E4, Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3 Compact

The (black) future of Android 7.0 Nougat

There is no doubt that the future looks very black for Android 7.0 Nougat, after the difficult requirements demanded by Google from manufacturers and their devices. If the search giant does not look for a solution to these problems that we have discussed in total, a total of 432 different terminals will not receive Android Nougat, officially presented during 2015 and 2016.

We are talking that almost 50% of the smartphones presented in recent times will not receive the new version of Android, although most of these devices are mid-range or low-end.

Is your mobile device on the list of Android terminals that will not receive the new version of the operating system developed by Google?.