Google recently made Android 7.0 Nougat software official for its Nexus devices alongside the Pixel C tablet, however, not all devices owned by the search engine giant will receive the new OS.
Apparently, Google has listed last year’s Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X alongside the 2014 Nexus 6 as the first beneficiaries of the new firmware. These will also be joined by the Nexus 9, Nexus Player as well as the Google Pixel C tablet, however, the is no room for those rocking the 2013 Nexus 5 and Nexus 7.
Given that the Google Nexus 2013 is now more than three years old, it seems the company is ready to abandon the handset as far as rolling out updates are concerned. However, this doesn’t mean you can’t have the latest Android 7.0 Nougat installed on this smartphone, which according to many, is still powerful enough to handle their day-to-day tasks.
Folks down at XDA Developers Forum have figured out a way to install Android 7.0 Nougat on the aging Nexus 5. This is the best part of having an Android device – they give tech-savvy users room to play around with the root and in so doing, a lot of customization can take place, including flashing a Nougat-based ROM on the handset.
When you install an Android 7.0 Nougat custom ROM on your Google Nexus 2013, the device will give you all the goodies you have heard about the new OS. These include new notifications, Night Mode, Quick Settings and even the new launcher, just to name but a few. Cool huh!
One thing to keep in mind is that the XDA-sourced ROM is still very new, just like Android 7.0 Nougat itself. As a result, the performance of your Nexus 5 might be unstable due to some unpredictable problems that you might come across. But is this enough to come in your way of updating your Google Nexus 2013 to the latest Android 7.0 Nougat firmware, especially since the XDA folks will keep on updating this ROM until it achieves near perfection? Probably not.
If you are in, check out for this Nexus 5 Android 7.0 Nougat ROM on the official XDA Developers forum.