Are Lenovo improving on updates?

[DanceswithUnix]

My Moto G5 just got an update to Oreo 8.1

Motorola used to be awesome on updates, but it all fell apart at Lenovo. I had honestly completely given up on ever seeing a major OS update on this device, even the security updates were occasional and well out of date by the time they arrived. Are Lenovo upping their game, or am I just lucky and this slipped out? This is a retail device as well, so not like one from a phone company where they can be blamed this was only even about Lenovo.

Seems I am now on 8.1.0 security patch level August 2018. Quite the jump. Now to find what's moved & changed

[spacein_vader]

My Moto G5 just got an update to Oreo 8.1

Motorola used to be awesome on updates, but it all fell apart at Lenovo. I had honestly completely given up on ever seeing a major OS update on this device, even the security updates were occasional and well out of date by the time they arrived. Are Lenovo upping their game, or am I just lucky and this slipped out? This is a retail device as well, so not like one from a phone company where they can be blamed this was only even about Lenovo.

Seems I am now on 8.1.0 security patch level August 2018. Quite the jump. Now to find what's moved & changed

I got that on the same phone at the weekend. So far all I've noticed is all the icons are round now and the notification bar turns white if you drag it down. Not noticed anything else or any good or bad impact on battery life or performance.

[Output]

According to https://support.motorola.com/uk/en/softwareupgrade, my Moto X Play will remain on 7.1.1. So it's obviously a good job that I've been on LineageOS for most of this year, as that was already at 7.1.2, and I keep upgrading to the weekly "nightlies" available for it.

Whether 15.1 or newer will become available for my model however is another question. A search indicates an unofficial LineageOS build was being worked on for my model, but there was said to be at least one part that doesn't work in the available builds and it hasn't been updated in a number of months now.

At least the nightlies keep me up to date on security patches.

It seems however that if I want a more substantial upgrade in the software sense, it would mean a more substantial upgrade in the hardware sense too. I'll have to see if something catches my eye, but it's a shame as it has only been three years from purchase. At least it has been just as fast this whole time, and assuming the LineageOS 14.1 builds keep coming in the meantime, I can continue to wait happily enough until I find something that I feel is worth it.

[spacein_vader]

According to https://support.motorola.com/uk/en/softwareupgrade, my Moto X Play will remain on 7.1.1. So it's obviously a good job that I've been on LineageOS for most of this year, as that was already at 7.1.2, and I keep upgrading to the weekly "nightlies" available for it.

Whether 15.1 or newer will become available for my model however is another question. A search indicates an unofficial LineageOS build was being worked on for my model, but there was said to be at least one part that doesn't work in the available builds and it hasn't been updated in a number of months now.

At least the nightlies keep me up to date on security patches.

It seems however that if I want a more substantial upgrade in the software sense, it would mean a more substantial upgrade in the hardware sense too. I'll have to see if something catches my eye, but it's a shame as it has only been two years from purchase. At least it has been just as fast this whole time, and assuming the LineageOS 14.1 builds keep coming in the meantime, I can continue to wait happily enough until I find something that I feel is worth it.

I personally would quite happily take a phone that never got a major OS versions n update but did get all the monthly security patches.

[Output]

I personally would quite happily take a phone that never got a major OS versions n update but did get all the monthly security patches.

I guess my thinking is more along the lines of the more major versions it is capable of upgrading to (without becoming too slow), the more value I have out of it as I can keep it for longer without having missed out on any potential software improvements that may have been made.

It still has value to me because of the continuing patches of course, but not as much as it potentially could have otherwise.

I don't actually have a pressing need for something newer. If I did go that route however, the hardware would obviously also need to be better than what I already have with the X Play to make it feel worth it on that side of it too.

EDIT: I was mistaken, I've actually had it for three years, so I have had more value than I previously thought.

[spacein_vader]

I guess my thinking is more along the lines of the more major versions it is capable of upgrading to (without becoming too slow), the more value I have out of it as I can keep it for longer without having missed out on any potential software improvements that may have been made.

It still has value to me because of the continuing patches of course, but not as much as it potentially could have otherwise.

I don't actually have a pressing need for something newer. If I did go that route however, the hardware would obviously also need to be better than what I already have with the X Play to make it feel worth it on that side of it too.

EDIT: I was mistaken, I've actually had it for three years.

I'm not sure if major versions make much difference to support on Android. I've yet to find an app that's cut off support for anything newer than 5.X

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I'm not sure if major versions make much difference to support on Android. I've yet to find an app that's cut off support for anything newer than 5.X

True.

If I did spot something that tempted me enough to upgrade though, it's not like this one would go unused as I'd give it to a family member who would certainly benefit from its more reliable battery (compared to their current phone) and its 4G-capability.

[zakeruer]

I received the same update notification on my Moto Z, long waited for that update, lol

[DanceswithUnix]

According to https://support.motorola.com/uk/en/softwareupgrade, my Moto X Play will remain on 7.1.1. So it's obviously a good job that I've been on LineageOS for most of this year, as that was already at 7.1.2, and I keep upgrading to the weekly "nightlies" available for it.

How are you finding Lineage? My son has a Moto X play, I've had to replace the battery recently as it would get to 65% and then just die. That was a right pain as you have to transfer the NFC antenna which is stuck to the old battery with a special magnetic ferrite layer which you have to try not to damage. Still, he's good to go now hardware wise, but he's pretty miffed at the lack of updates.

Do you still get blocked from using things like Netflix on that rom?

I'm not sure if major versions make much difference to support on Android. I've yet to find an app that's cut off support for anything newer than 5.X

It isn't as bad as the early days of Android, a lot of the API is in the downloaded Google services so major versions are mainly the look and feel. You do get the odd watershed though, like Vulkan support requires 7.0 or later.

[Output]

How are you finding Lineage? My son has a Moto X play, I've had to replace the battery recently as it would get to 65% and then just die. That was a right pain as you have to transfer the NFC antenna which is stuck to the old battery with a special magnetic ferrite layer which you have to try not to damage. Still, he's good to go now hardware wise, but he's pretty miffed at the lack of updates.

It's been going well enough, but my usage is pretty basic so there are plenty of things that I won't have checked for that another person may want to.

For Play Store etc. I had to install OpenGAPPS, but that survives through updates. Magisk (another extra install) on the other hand doesn't seem to, so I have to re-install that after every update.

Do you still get blocked from using things like Netflix on that rom?

I've no idea about Netflix, but I think I may have had NOW TV working on it at one point after I switched - but I couldn't say for sure as I might just be remembering the time I was still on the stock ROM. If I did, I most likely made sure to set Magisk's hide function for that, so that it doesn't recognise the root access.