Tag: Nexus 5X

There has been a lot of press today covering Android P and the first developer preview dropping.  That is certainly news worthy because, honestly, it came a week or two earlier than expected.  But what is not news is the fact that the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P and Pixel C tablet will not be getting Android P, officially at least.  Google has made it very clear and very public when support for these devices would end, both in major releases and security updates.

While we can debate all day long if two years of software support is too short, it is the number that Google settled on and has published for support of devices.  The only exception, and likely the way going forward, is the Pixel 2 lineup which gets three years of major updates.  For the Nexus 5X and 6P, major build support ended in September 2017.  That means Android Oreo was the last major build.

Google is finally offering a reasonable replacement to those that have struggled with defective, often bootlooping, Nexus 5X on Project Fi.  Customers who have the 5X and have the $5 per month Device Protection Plan on the device, can now get a Moto X4 as a replacement.  The $69 deductible payment is still required but this is far better than the $53 check that was offered by Google on defect 5X’s just a few weeks ago.  If you didn’t want that $53, you could get a $100 Google Store credit.

The Nexus 5X has been plagued by bootloop issues where the device would simply be stuck in a mode where it is simply never is able to get past the boot up screen on the device and actually load Android to run the phone.  Not all phones were effected of course but many where, prompting some class action lawsuits against Google and LG.

As expected with it being the first Monday of the month, Google has released the Android Security Update for October.  While there are still two patches that were released per the norm, they contain far fewer patches and fixes than normal.

The first updated, dated October 1st, is general Android fixes and contains a total of 8 patches and fixes, three of which are considered critical.  The second patch, dated October 5th, has 6 total fixes with 2 of them marked as critical.  As a reminder, the Google Pixel and Nexus devices will be getting the October 5th updates, which are cumulative to the 1st, and is aimed at hardware specific driver fixes for those devices.

Without any notification or explanation, Google has extended the security update support for the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P an additional two months.  Both phones will now receive minor software patches until November 2018.

The change is reflected in an update to the Nexus Android version page on Google Support and appears to be the only changes to the schedule which the company adopted in 2016.

The 2nd and likely the last beta of Android Nougat 7.1.2 has begun rolling out to those enrolled in the Android Beta program.  The update brings additional bug fixes and refinements to the first beta which, on the whole, is a bug fix and refinement release for Nougat.  While there is no official word on when the general public will see 7.1.2, it is likely not far away.  Generally the first beta was solid and this second appears to be smoothing out a few rough edges.  It feels complete at this point.

While the focus is on bug fixes and refinements, this beta does bring a few new things to the table.  First, for those of you with a Nexus 6P, you finally get the fingerprint scanner swipe action that has been on the Nexus 5X since the first beta.  If you remember, the first beta for the 6P was delayed by about three weeks and didn’t come with the ability to swipe down and read notifications.  That seems to have been addressed in this second beta.

Google has released the first beta of Android Nougat 7.1.2, the next maintenance release for the latest version of Android.  The build became available today for those in the Android Beta program with the final release expected to be “in a few months”.  If you have a Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Pixel, Pixel XL, or Pixel C tablet, you can download the beta through the program.  Like any beta release, it will have bugs and other issues so it is probably not best to load it up on your main phone at this point.

Of note is that the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 9 are not in the list of devices that will be getting the 7.1.2 update.  The Nexus 6 just received the 7.1.1 update earlier this month while the Nexus 9 got the update when it was available for the Nexus 6P and 5x.  All indications are that these devices will not be getting the .2 update.  Google specifically left them out of the announcement around the beta.