2011-era Galaxy Nexus gets Android 7.1 Nougat through custom ROM

One of the things that hardcore Android fans loved most about Nexus devices was that their open nature allows third-party developers to create officially unsupported features and functions for them. That's why we're relatively unsurprised to report that the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus, a phone that's archaic by modern standards, has just received its taste of Android 7.1 Nougat through an unofficial ROM.

Two developers going by the handles MWisBest and Ziyan stand behind Unlegacy-Android, a project that creates custom (read: unofficial) Android ROMs for various smartphones. Their latest work is an Android 7.1 Nougat-based ROM for the Galaxy Nexus.

According to a thread on XDA Developers, the Android 7.1 Nougat ROM works fairly stable on the Galaxy Nexus. Users report that some problems exist, most notably GPS and mobile data issues, but they don't seem to be prevalent. All critical features are apparently fully functional.

If you're new to the Android ecosystem, you don't know what the Galaxy Nexus is. If that's the case, here's a quick refresher:

The Galaxy Nexus is a Samsung-made Nexus smartphone, the third Nexus phone that Google ever launched. It hails from all the way back in 2011 and comes with hardware specs that include a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED panel running at 720 by 1280 pixels, a TI OMAP 4460 chipset with a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, and 16GB of integrated storage space. The latest official Android build that Google has pushed for the phone was Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

If you just happen to have a Galaxy Nexus collecting dust in some drawer and you're keen to test-drive Android 7.1 Nexus, then the install instructions cand be found at the source link below. Just note that you'll have to root the Galaxy Nexus before you can install the custom ROM.