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Android O & P , I really don't mind have either of those , BUT won't buy a device with Nougat for couple of reasons and of those reasons is "Project Treble Support "
If any device have N out of the box is 90% change Treble will NOT be there , the other 10% is if they coded / created what's needed for Treble (having Vendor partition).
If any device have O out of the box , Project Treble is supported by default.
... I'm fairly certain every person who said no has an exception for this exact situation. It is not very logical to expect a phone releasing in August to have software releasing in September. I'm sure everyone is aware of the software development process and wouldn't expect a phone they knew was coming out a month after the release of new software to contain said software. I believe it is accurate to assume--and maybe even implied--that the OP was about releasing a phone this year with Nougat as opposed to Oreo.
There is no way I would buy a new phone a few months after an OS release with an older OS on it. That sounds very lazy for a phone manufacturer to do and gives me no faith that they would update their phone.
Unfortunately, it reminds me a lot of the ZTE Blade V8 Pro which is a great piece of hardware that launched with older software and hasn't been updated since. This is a phone I could have easily recommended to many people because of the hardware but never did so because of the state of the software.
It is a sad state of affairs when an OEM releases a great piece of hardware and just leaves it out to rot with old outdated software and no support. It makes the product look bad and the company look worse. Then users are punished with a phone lacking many new features and functions.
Unless the person is somewhat techy the average consumer probably will not care unless someone points out a feature on their phone that it cannot do because of old software/hardware. And it would need to be a feature that they really need or want to care about. I have a few old phones from about 3 years ago. They are usable but lacking when trying to install certain apps on them. The apps will not install.
I voted yes, I would, with the caveat that "unlocked" includes an unlockable bootloader.
An example why... I have several phones in my collection that run Lineage OS very well, as I recently had to do when a Nexus 5x in our family ran into a documented bootloop issue following an Oreo update. LG was great and replaced the motherboard out of warranty to address the issue, but I needed to backfill with an old phone while I waited. Out came a shelved OnePlus One, many years old but has Lineage OS support and ran modern Android just fine. Great, in fact.
So for me if a phone has an unlockable bootloader, the launch OS doesn't mean as much to me because I can put what I want on it. For me that is better scenario than getting the latest OS at launch but then manufacturer updates stop, and I can't update the OS even though the hardware would easily support it.
I wasn't aware the poll was limited to non-techies and their point of view, I just read the "would you" part of the poll question... sorry!
The thing is the ordinary user who they are talking about in the survey is one who knows what the software of the phone is and asks about Android Oreo. More people than you know about actually kno
No. Please release the new hardware with new software otherwise I will question the company's capability of providing software support for said device. Also, there is the worry where people have issues when they update their phone to a new version- I think its best to avoid that.
Would you buy a new car with an old engine or an old transmission? Of course not, you would want the engine or transmission that comes with that year's model.
Same with my devices. I want the newest software available as well as the latest security update to ensure that my device is set up to run at an optimum level for the time being and near future.
I definitely will not buy a phone that is running any version of Nougat or older, due to the fact that any phone released with 8.0/8.1 Oreo will have to support Treble, thus making updating to the newest versions of Android easier and quicker.
Well, it's not impossible to release a Treble-ready phone running nougat. Essential did that. Just set up the partitions that Treble needs and when the time comes, voila. So, I'd rephrase the whole question. "Would you buy any new device that is not configured for Treble when it gets Oreo?" But yes, @jmlloyd40, odds are the A9 will be Oreo out of the box, so - Treble day one!
@ryampolsky
It is possible to bring Treble ready device with N, but will need/require more work than devices shipping with O.
Would you buy a new car with an old engine or an old transmission? Of course not, you would want the engine or transmission that comes with that year's model.
Same with my devices. I want the newest software available as well as the latest security update to ensure that my device is set up to run at an optimum level for the time being and near future. I definitely will not buy a phone that is running any version of Nougat or older, due to the fact that any phone released with 8.0/8.1 Oreo will have to support Treble, thus making updating to the newest versions of Android easier and quicker. > @DrakenFX said:
I don't see many OEM's spending extra time/money to make phones shipping with Nougat, Treble ready. IMO their time & money would be better spent shipping devices with Oreo, thus Treble supported.
Granted their are exceptions to the rule such as Essential, and Google.
I am happy with vendors that will update their phone to latest OSif hardware is not the stumbling block.
If the purpose of this poll is to gauge whether or not I would buy the Axon 9 with Android 7.1.2, the answer would be "it depends on the rest of the device details". Specifically, I won't touch the Axon 9 unless it has a industry leading camera. I can live with Nougat just fine. But I'll be damned if I buy a smartphone that forces me to carry another phone just so I can take competent pictures. The camera on the Axon 9 is the most important feature for me. I won't consider the Axon 9 if ZTE just settles for anything less than a superior camera . As always, just my two cents.
Hopefully there's another enhanced version with 8gb of ram and please for the love of everything good, support unlocking the bootloader
I would prefer the current operating system. As a part of the current operating system, I'll be looking for a clear policy for releasing security updates and for how long.
Given the choice between a new device with an up to date operating system that is unlocked and one that isn't. I may give preference to the unlocked one so one could easily switch to a third party rom that better supports that device.
I voted yes, but that is only assuming that the phone offered something completely remarkable that other phones did not.
I'd be willing to bet the AVERAGE user is also not buying an unlocked phone in the first place, which is what the poll is asking.