Hong Kong: LG V10 Finally Obtains Android 7.0 Nougat, Better Late Than Never

Jun 15, 2017 11:22 AM EDT

The LG V10 was quite the stunner when it was first announced in October 2015. This was LG’s take on the second flagship device to roll out in a year, after the LG G4 was released earlier in 2015. Perhaps LG saw Samsung’s strategy with the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy Note 5, and wanted to follow suit. The LG V10 was shipped with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop right out of the box, before it picked up the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update in due time. When it came to Android 7.0 Nougat, there were questions going around whether a 2 year old handset would continue to receive support for its operating system? The apparent answer was positive, where it was revealed earlier this year that the LG G4 and the LG V10 (released in the same year) were in line for an Android 7.0 Nougat update.

It is comforting to know that LG has been introducing Android security updates to the LG V10 for some time now, although users remained stuck at Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and hence, were unable to take advantage of all that Android 7.0 Nougat had to offer. All of that has finally changed, with the Android 7.0 Nougat finally hitting different LG V10 models last month. This time around, the update has wound its way to the LG V10 H961N handsets in Hong Kong, carrying the build V30a. At long last, LG V10 owners in the territory will be able to get a taste of what everyone has been talking about concerning Nougat all this while.

The usual precautions would apply here before continuing with the Android 7.0 Nougat update on the LG V10. First of all, perform a backup of your important data just in case something goes awry. From there, either perform the update with your LG V10 plugged into it's charger, or have at least 50% of battery life remaining since the process might take longer than expected. As the Android 7.0 Nougat update is close to 1.4GB in size, it would be best to rely on a Wi-Fi network to perform the download rather than consuming a large chunk of your monthly data quota in one go.

Once the Android 7.0 Nougat update is installed, your 2015 flagship handset from LG ought to be able to deliver all of the Nougat features, including the much talked about multi-window split screen mode for multitasking purposes and increased productivity. Apart from that, there is also the revamped notification shade which will do its bit to group similar notifications together.

Apart from that, the Settings and Quick Settings menu would have been altered for the better. LG V10 owners who have updated their handsets would most probably find that they are able to gain more performance mileage, thanks to the revamped Doze power saving mode that has been improved to maximize battery life.

The LG V10 arrived with the H960 model number for the global market, where it is known as the H960A in Europe and certain parts of Latin America, H960AR over in Argentina, H960TR in Turkey, H960YK in Israel, H961S in both Russia and Kazakhstan, H962 in Taiwan, H968 in neighboring China, and H961N in Hong Kong. Hmm, that almost sounds like a strain of the bird flu virus.

Well, have you given your LG V10 H961N an update already? If you haven’t done so, what are you waiting for? Initial impressions by those who have installed the update have been favorable, and nothing untoward have been reported so far, so feel free to proceed. Now about that Android 7.1 Nougat update...