Android Nougat for 800/801 on Snapdragon, Qualcomm returns the ball to builders

Since the first deployment of Android Nougat on Nexus , some wonder why the devices with a Snapdragon processor 800 or 801 do not benefit. Qualcomm, the problem is not a technical limitation of its chips.
 

      

A week that Android 7.0 Nougat is available on certain devices and the list of terminals that will receive this update begins to take shape. Strangely, some smartphones seem already excluded, the Nexus 5 , though not that old, and the Sony Xperia Z3 which was used to test the Japanese manufacturer for the beta firmware. The common point between these two phones? Their processor, Snapdragon 800 in the first case, and 801 in the second.

Qualcomm clears

Rumors began to swell about it on the Internet, indicating that the drivers of these SoC had not been updated by Qualcomm. For its part, the US company soon release on the subject to get rid of this liability

Qualcomm is working hand in hand with manufacturers to implement and support the various versions of Android on our Snapdragon chips. The management of duration and operating system updates available are subject to the life cycle of brands of products.

The Nougat Android compatibility problem with smartphones feature a Snapdragon 800/801 therefore would not Qualcomm. According to Sony, the absence of Nougat on the Xperia Z3 is both technical and legal, and the manufacturer "would not be able to offer Android N on the Z3 (c)" while passing the Compatibility Test Suite of Google allowing terminals to have the Google Play Services and therefore software suite resulting (including the Google Play Store).

An encryption problem?

In all likelihood, the problem does not come from a lack of CPU power or even the GPU as some might imagine at first (because of Vulkan). AndroidAuthority therefore think the problem could come from the new Nougat file encryption system and Direct Boot, which could necessitate games Instruction ARMv8, available only from the next generation (from the Snapdragon 805, which would explain why the Nexus 6 can enjoy Android 7.0 Nougat).
As plausible as this explanation, it is still a theory that has not yet been confirmed either by the manufacturers or by Google. Anyway, the greediest can try to go through custom ROMs already available for Nexus 5 , Nexus 7 (2013) and a handful of other smartphones and tablets .