When will my phone get Android 7.0 Nougat?

Some two months and a half after it rolled out to Google's last year's Nexus phones, the latest Android 7.x Nougat update has started arriving on other phones. It brings all the great new features that come with the update: the new notifications with quick replies and bundled notifications, the native multitasking, the improved doze mode and many more.

The first to lead the Nougat update season is - to many's suprise - not Samsung, but Moto, the Lenovo-owned company. Starting the week of November 21st, it is already pushing out official over-the-air Android 7.x Nougat updates for the Moto Z and Moto Z Droid families of phones.

A close runner-up, LG has also started a slow roll-out of Android 7.x Nougat for its flagship G5. Currently, only a few users on Sprint have received the update, but a more massive roll-out to all carriers is expected in the near future.

Meanwhile, everyone else is busy working on the last software touches before the big wave of Nougat update starts in December 2016. We walk you through each manufacturer's plans for the update right below.

Update specifics: Moto's flavor of Nougat is enriched with support for Daydream, Google’s platform for high-quality, mobile VR. In fact, Moto's phones are the first non-Google phones that are deemed Daydream-ready.

The biggest phone maker in the world, Samsung, has released a beta version of its Nougat update for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge that you can install when you register for the company's beta program, available in the US, UK and South Korea. An official update, however, is yet to come: Samsung is collecting the feedback from its beta testing and is likely to start rolling out the OTA update in December.

What about Android 7.x Nougat on older devices like the Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S6, S6 Edge, and its Active series? Expectations are that the update will be available to those phones at a later time, but no specific date is yet announced.

Update specifics: There are a few extremely cool and unique features on Samsung's beta take on Nougat. The one with biggest repercussions is the option to switch to a lower resolution: you can downgrade your phone to 1080p or even 720p resolutions, which will help you get better battery life. Samsung has also made big changes to the actual look of the UI.

Samsung's big Android rival, LG, is a step ahead in the update game. In fact, LG's latest V20 ships with Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, so there's no need to wait for an update on it. The LG G5 that was released at about the same time as the S7 and S7 Edge has already started receiving the update for a very small number of people on Sprint, but expectations are that a massive roll out will start very soon.

What about the Android Nougat update on older and more affordable phones like the LG V10, LG G4, LG's K10, K7 and others? There is no official word about that, but we're hopeful that at least last years flagships will get updated to Android 7 later on, in 2017.

Update specifics: LG's version of Android Nougat is already present on the LG V20. Phones like the G5 and others that will be updated to Nougat get updated to look like the V20 in terms of UI, so make sure to check out our V20 review interface part to learn more.

 

Financially troubled HTC is also expected to outrun many others as rumors say that it's in the final stages of testing the Android 7.x Nougat update for the HTC 10. Well connected developer @llabtoofer has leaked the update, and by far it seems that it will grace the phone in December 2016.

What about the other HTC's and their Nougat fate? The HTC One A9, HTC One M9, and others are likely to also get updated at a later point in time, probably in early 2017.

Sony is also progressing fin with the Android 7.x Nougat update for the Xperia XZ and Xperia X Compact. We don't have exact dates, but don't expect Sony to fall too far behind the December 2016 wave of software updates. The older Xperia Z5 and Z5 Compact are also likely to get the Nougat update, but if this happens, expect it to happen in 2017.

Huawei is the world's third-biggest phone maker, after Samsung and Apple, and its hugely popular in Asia and Europe, but its phones are not officially sold in the United States.

For the Android 7.0 Nougat update, Huawei seems to be on par with other major phone makers: first, its latest flagship, the Mate 9, is already shipping with Nougat on board, while its attractive and well-priced Huawei P9 is already in beta testing stage and the Android 7.0 update should come very soon for it. The same goes for the Huawei Mate 8, the 6-inch gargantuan phablet released last year. Both phones will also get updated to the newest EMUI 5.0. It's less clear what will happen to the Huawei P8, the company's 2015 flagship: will it get Nougat? Huawei has not officially said anything yet.

We've bundled the three brands because all three are relatively new to the U.S. market and all three offer similar products: well-specced and well-designed, offering great value for the money. The OnePlus 3T and OnePlus 3 are officially confirmed to get the Android 7.0 Nougat update by the end of the year, while ZTE and Honor have confirmed that they are working on the Nougat update for the ZTE Axon 7 and Honor 8. Neither of these brands has said anything about its earlier phones: at this point in time we simply don't know whether the OnePlus 2, OnePlus X, ZTE Axon 7 Mini, Honor 5X, and others will get updated, but if they do, expect this also to happen in 2017.