Google listed the Motorola Nexus 6 and the HTC Nexus 9 as the devices that would receive Android Nougat.
Sticking true to the promise, Google isrolling out the latest 7.0 version of the operating system, which promises to be one of the best updates in the history of android, in the next few weeks. The new version offers several new features compared to the android marshmallow, which largely made updates to the looks and the internal engines. Marshmallow brought about the doze feature to android in order to increase battery life. The new Android Nougat focuses on increasing the capabilities of the operating system.
One of the best features of the new operating system is likely to be the quick app switcher. The recent app button can now be used to switch between recently used apps by quickly pressing twice. It works seamlessly and would make you wonder as to how multitasking was so cumbersome without this aspect. The multiwindow feature also takes the multitasking capabilities of the phone to another level. This may not be new to the smartphone segment with Samsung being credited with perfecting this feature several years ago on the Samsung Galaxy Note series. Being able to have two apps open at the same time on stock android, though, is a new experience and will be available on the Android Nougat.
These features, along with many others, are being rolled out to the Motorola Nexus 6 and the HTC Nexus 9.
Despite being almost two years old, the Nexus 6 from Motorola is capable of running this new operating system thanks to the snapdragon 805 processor and 3 GB of RAM. These are configurations – especially in terms of the RAM – that are found even in some 2015 higher end phones. It is one of the reasons for the Nexus 6 being included in the list of devices that would receive this new operating system. It is flanked by the HTC Nexus 9, which is a tablet with Nvidia Tegra K1 chipset and 2 GB of RAM.
These are below average specifications by today’s standards, but Google thinks that they are good enough to run the new operating system. It is worth mentioning that both these devices started out life with the android 5.0 OS. They have since received update to the marshmallow operating system, but this could be the final round of major operating system update if Google sticks with the two-year update philosophy of other manufacturers.
Despite being almost 2 years old, the Nexus 6 seems like the most modern of the two. It has a 5.96 inch display with QHD resolution, which means a pixel density of close to 500 PPI. The display uses AMOLED technology while the phone itself is water resistant to some splashes. The 13-megapixel rear camera comes with dual LED flash and optical image stabilization, thus making it one of the few phones from its era to offer this feature. The camera was also capable of 4K video recording. One of the limitations of the device might be its two-megapixel front facing camera. The nonremovable 3220 mAh battery meant that the Nexus 6 had enough juice to last a day on full charge.
The HTC Nexus 9, though, will be considered as one of the several android tablets that did not fare well in the market. The 8.9-inch display with IPS panel technology did not have a great pixel density (281 PPI) nor did it have the excellent performance to make it a gaming tablet. The device, though, could last around 10 hours while providing multimedia content. Incredibly, theHTC Nexus 9 also came out at the same time as the Nexus 6.