How amazing is Android Nougat?!

[Bryn]

I upgraded my OnePlus One to Nougat 7.1 tonight. It's like I just got a new phone. Somehow Nougat makes it seem like my screen resolution has increased - everything looks more crisp than before. Performance is unreal, the app switcher is even more silky smooth, boot time is much faster, no more optimising apps when installing system apps etc etc.

I can't stop playing with my phone. Screw buying a OnePlus 3 or some other flagship - just upgrade to Android Nougat.

Is anyone else enjoying this Google Goodness?

 

[OrbitalDawn]

How did you update it? Through the Update Tracker, OTA, or sideload?

 

[Bryn]

How did you update it? Through the Update Tracker, OTA, or sideload?

I've always found Cyanogenmod to be the easiest and cleanest firmware to run on my phone. Was a pretty painless procedure. Just copy firmware file and appropriate Google Apps installer to my phone, boot into recovery, factory reset, install both files and reboot phone. I usually OTA update, but I always do a manual install for a version change like this.

Back in the day I used to also backup and restore all my apps, but I don't even bother anymore. Literally all my apps now keep themselves in sync, so there's no point.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

I've always found Cyanogenmod to be the easiest and cleanest firmware to run on my phone. Was a pretty painless procedure. Just copy firmware file and appropriate Google Apps installer to my phone, boot into recovery, factory reset, install both files and reboot phone. I usually OTA update, but I always do a manual install for a version change like this.

Back in the day I used to also backup and restore all my apps, but I don't even bother anymore. Literally all my apps now keep themselves in sync, so there's no point.

Hmm, cool. Where did you find it? Is it a proper, stable version or a nightly kind of thing?

 

[Bryn]

Hmm, cool. Where did you find it? Is it a proper, stable version or a nightly kind of thing?

CM 14.1 only just landed a few days ago, so there are only nightlies atm. In all the years I've been running CM nightlies I think I've had maybe 3 dodge installations that required a quick flash of a prior version. And they were minor annoyances even then. The nightlies are pretty damn stable.

 

[OrbitalDawn]

CM 14.1 only just landed a few days ago, so there are only nightlies atm. In all the years I've been running CM nightlies I think I've had maybe 3 dodge installations that required a quick flash of a prior version. And they were minor annoyances even then. The nightlies are pretty damn stable.

Momentarily forgot I'm still running the normal, official Cyanogen OS. So still on Android 6, unfortunately.

Pondering whether I should install CyanogenMod. I stopped with the whole sideloading/rooting game because I just couldn't be bothered anymore. But going by your post it seems to have been simplified?

 

[Bryn]

Momentarily forgot I'm still running the normal, official Cyanogen OS. So still on Android 6, unfortunately.

Pondering whether I should install CyanogenMod. I stopped with the whole sideloading game because I just couldn't be bothered anymore. But going by your post it seems to have been simplified?

It's really hard to screw up. I recommend going for it.

1. Install the latest TWRP recovery. No harder than installing an app via apk. Just a quick Google for your particular device.
2. Find your device's CM download page. Download latest CM 14.1 nightly.
3. Google for the CM Gapps download page. Get the default download for Android 7.
4. Copy files to your phone. Get into recovery mode once TWRP is done.
5. Factory reset, install firmware and then Gapps. All in one session, no reboot.
6. Reboot phone normally.
7. ??
8. Profit!

 

[OrbitalDawn]

It's really hard to screw up. I recommend going for it.

1. Install the latest TWRP recovery. No harder than installing an app via apk. Just a quick Google for your particular device.
2. Find your device's CM download page. Download latest CM 14.1 nightly.
3. Google for the CM Gapps download page. Get the default download for Android 7.
4. Copy files to your phone. Get into recovery mode once TWRP is done.
5. Factory reset, install firmware and then Gapps. All in one session, no reboot.
6. Reboot phone normally.
7. ??
8. Profit!

Shot. I'll consider it.

 

[DA-LION-619]

Really tempted but Huawei has terrible custom rom support.

 

[Bryn]

Shot. I'll consider it.

If you want to be rooted (which I recommend if you aren't already), also flash SuperSU. Rooting is device specific, so definitely Google for a clear guide applicable for your device, but in general it involves nothing more than downloading the appropriate SuperSU files and flashing them in recovery mode. If you're unlucky your device will have a locked bootloader, but there are usually ways to circumvent that.

 

[Bryn]

Really tempted but Huawei has terrible custom rom support.

Support for custom firmware is hugely important to me. It's not hardware that determines the quality of the experience; it's the software. Root support is non-negotiable, as I must have an app like Greenify able to hibernate pesky apps that want to run in the background for no reason. And I've yet to find a ROM better than Cyanogenmod - vanilla Android is missing too many features for my liking. CM is the same thing but with a greater degree of customisation.

Last I checked the latest Samsung flagships were a nightmare to root and flash custom firmware. A terrible shame, as an S7 Edge running Cyanogenmod would be truly glorious.

 

[Neoprod]

Shut up, Bryn...some of us stuck on 5.1

Stupid Meizu.

 

[DA-LION-619]

Support for custom firmware is hugely important to me. It's not hardware that determines the quality of the experience; it's the software. Root support is non-negotiable, as I must have an app like Greenify able to hibernate pesky apps that want to run in the background for no reason. And I've yet to find a ROM better than Cyanogenmod - vanilla Android is missing too many features for my liking. CM is the same thing but with a greater degree of customisation.

Last I checked the latest Samsung flagships were a nightmare to root and flash custom firmware. A terrible shame, as an S7 Edge running Cyanogenmod would be truly glorious.

Yeah I used to be like you with my Nexus device, custom rom, custom kernel.
I don't have the time any more to **** something up then go fix it, time is money

 

[Glue]

Shut up, Bryn...some of us stuck on 5.1

Stupid Meizu.

Eish. I'm already on 7.1.1

 

[AntennaMan]

I upgraded my OnePlus One to Nougat 7.1 tonight. It's like I just got a new phone. Somehow Nougat makes it seem like my screen resolution has increased - everything looks more crisp than before. Performance is unreal, the app switcher is even more silky smooth, boot time is much faster, no more optimising apps when installing system apps etc etc.

I can't stop playing with my phone. Screw buying a OnePlus 3 or some other flagship - just upgrade to Android Nougat.

Is anyone else enjoying this Google Goodness?

I would love to do this.

Just a quick question. Does banking apps still work? And Snapscan?

I use the FNB app and Snapscan quite a lot, so I would like to have them working.

 

[Bryn]

Yeah I used to be like you with my Nexus device, custom rom, custom kernel.
I don't have the time any more to **** something up then go fix it, time is money

It only takes a few minutes to root and flash custom firmware from my experience? I don't change firmware like I change socks. Even with CM nightlies I often updated once every few months.

I would love to do this.

Just a quick question. Does banking apps still work? And Snapscan?

I use the FNB app and Snapscan quite a lot, so I would like to have them working.

Never had issues with Capitec, Standard or FNB apps. I've never used Snapscan so can't comment there.

 

[Park@82]

It only takes a few minutes to root and flash custom firmware from my experience? I don't change firmware like I change socks. Even with CM nightlies I often updated once every few months.

Takes a lot of time to setup my phone to my liking from scratch.

 

[Bryn]

Takes a lot of time to setup my phone to my liking from scratch.

Not only is a factory reset only required when changing Android versions (eg. 6.x - 7.x), but Nova Launcher Prime can backup its configuration.

So either redownload your apps and then restore Nova Launcher, or use a backup app to restore your apps even faster.

 

[faniebraai]

//looks at official Nougat on my V20
//looks at beta Nougat on my wife's S7edge

yep, it's fantastic.

 

[Bryn]

//looks at official Nougat on my V20
//looks at beta Nougat on my wife's S7edge

yep, it's fantastic.

The only bummer is that the Xposed framework doesn't yet support Nougat. Man it's painful using the YouTube app with ads. They even appear half way through videos. For now I'm using a modified YouTube app without ads, but it doesn't handle 1080p well. 720p is okay for the time being.