Sony Announces Devices To Get Nougat, Z3 Missing

Sony has just announced the list of devices which will be getting the official taste of the latest Android release. Here are the devices which made the cut:

• Xperia Z3+
• Xperia Z4 Tablet
• Xperia Z5
• Xperia Z5 Compact
• Xperia Z5 Premium
• Xperia X
• Xperia XA
• Xperia XA Ultra
• Xperia X Performance

We had earlier come up with a list of devices which we believe will be getting the Nougat upgrade and we are glad to report that we got most of them right!

Why was Xperia Z3 dropped from Nougat support?

You might find it strange to note that Xperia Z3 did not make it to the list, considering the fact that it even got Nougat previews from Sony. Xperia Z3 runs on the Snapdragon 800 chipset, code named msm8974. We told you yesterday that Google has released the AOSP code of Android Nougat. but looking at the Git commits of Google for Qualcomm chipsets, it appears as if Google has dropped the Snapdragon 800 chipset completely with the release of Android 7.0. Snapdragon 800 was introduced back in 2013 and was also present in 2013's Nexus 5. Considering the fact that Google decided to drop Nexus 5 for Nougat, the Snapdragon 800 was also done away with, owing to it's age of 3 years. Google supports devices for updates only till the time they turn 2 years old. However, Xperia Z3 did get the preview builds which clearly signifies that msm8974 was a part of Nougat's AOSP branch till some point. This also means that Google might have been thinking to support the Nexus 5 too, only to kill this thought later on. What was conspiring inside Google that first made them include and then drop msm8974, only Google knows because AOSP versions of the preview builds are never made public. Since, Snapdragon 800 was dropped from the AOSP code, we do not expect Sony to go ahead and adapt the code for the Snapdragon 800. However, this thing will happen eventually, unofficially though, over at the XDA forums.

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.