Up to now, the only device to have received an official update to Android Nougat yet it has been around since 2014 is the Google Nexus 6.
This phablet was released in November 2014 and when it launched, it came preinstalled with Android Lollipop out of the box. There were some uncertainties over whether Google will roll out an update to Android Nougat when this OS came out last year, but the tech giant cast away any doubts by rolling out a second Nougat treat that bumped the OS version of the Google Nexus 6 from v7.0 to v7.1.1 of Nougat.
However, this is the best the device could get, with the search engine giant pointing out that the phablet won’t be updated to Android 7.1.2 Nougat, which currently powers the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X and the 2016 Pixel and Pixel XL phones.
Now, in a rare occurrence, a 2014 Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 tablet has appeared on benchmarking platform Geekbench with Android Nougat on board. In fact, it’s not just any version of Nougat, but the latest version of the OS, which is v7.1.2. While it’s definitely not possible that Sammy is working on an update for this device, which was announced in January and released in March of that year, what is interesting is the performance scores the device manages to get.
Carrying model number SM-T520, the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 is powered by an Exynos 5420 octa-core processor paired with 2GB RAM, which are pretty decent specs for a tablet released more than three years ago. In the benchmarks, the tablet managed a single-core score of 873 while topping a multi-core score of 2345.
It’s possible that this is just a custom ROM running the show, but these scores suggest that the device is still in a pretty much decent shape even after being around for more than three years. If you are out there and have been thinking of getting a custom ROM based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat for the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1, well you have your answers now.
The device should still get you decent performance levels after the upgrade to the latest Nougat OS, which also gives you a flurry of new features that you won’t find on the original KitKat that powers it out of the box or any of the upgrades up to 2015’s Marshmallow. But do make sure you know your way around flashing custom ROMs before diving into it.