Android 8.0 Oreo Review 2017

[Bouncer]

The Good

Project Treble isn't a silver bullet for Android's update problems, but it's the first time in a long time Google has changed Android to make system update development easier.

I love the smaller "by the way" notification section. It really cleans up the notification panel, while still letting the user read less-important notifications at their leisure. I just wish I could demote any app to "less important," regardless of what version of Android it targets.

The automatically-colored media notifications look amazing! Sometimes I cycle through songs with the notification panel just to see what it comes up with.

The background processing lockdown has been a long time coming. Finally, we'll see the end of wakelocks.

Picture-in-picture on a phone is great for videos, and Google's experiments with things like Google Maps look very promising.

EmojiCompat and downloadable fonts means Android users should get new emojis super fast. You don't even need Android O for this to work—it will work on Android 4.4 and up!

The Bad

Google's revamp of notification controls has the side effect of removing fine-grained notification controls for most apps. We'll have to wait for every app to upgrade to get the controls back.

The ambient notification display gets a huge downgrade, changing from showing the full notification panel to only showing tiny status bar icons.

Snoozing notifications could be a great feature, but the timing options are so limited that it's useless. A max of one hour? Seriously? Give me a time picker.

The disabling of Chrome's picture-in-picture support specifically for youtube.com is downright sleazy. That's not how Web browsers are supposed to act.

The Ugly

Updates—they're still a huge problem. Here's hoping Treble actually helps.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017...ly-reviewed/9/

[Scrumhalf]

The Oreo update just downloaded to my phone. Bouncer, Ripper, you guys got it yet?

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

[Bouncer]

No not yet. Look different? Anything you like? Anything you hate? Take some screenshots.

[Scrumhalf]

Visually not a lot different so far, although I haven't looked at everything. Lots of new emojis for texting, etc. The pulldown menu looks different and they have changed the fonts. See screenshot.

I'll be playing around with it and looking at the Google site and the reviews to understand the differences from Nougat.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[Scrumhalf]

There's a lot of good stuff under the hood, but in terms of user experience, it looks like most of the changes are visible only with the pixel launcher. I read some articles on how to install the pixel launcher on the nexus, but I don't have time to be messing around with installing apks and stuff.

[Bouncer]

Scrum I just now got it. LoL

[Scrumhalf]

It was freaking slow initially. Just got an update a couple of days ago and it seems to have fixed whatever issues there were. Now, it's great.

[Bouncer]

It was freaking slow initially. Just got an update a couple of days ago and it seems to have fixed whatever issues there were. Now, it's great.

i was gonna say you icons are still the old style in your screenshot. like the chrome icon etc..

[Scrumhalf]

Not sure when it changed. This is what my home screen looks like now.



Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[Turbo3000]

There's a lot of good stuff under the hood, but in terms of user experience, it looks like most of the changes are visible only with the pixel launcher. I read some articles on how to install the pixel launcher on the nexus, but I don't have time to be messing around with installing apks and stuff.

Installing apks and "tinkering" around with android is pretty fun. I suggest giving it a shot if you have a moment.

[Scrumhalf]

Installing apks and "tinkering" around with android is pretty fun. I suggest giving it a shot if you have a moment.

Yeah, I'll have to read up on it. I was the master of tweaking Motos and iPhones.. I had adjusted every possible thing on my Moto Razrs and jailbroken and carrier unlocked every one of my iPhones. Haven't kept up with it on the Android side though.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

[Bama]

I just got the Google pixel XL 2 and it has that Oreo on it. So far what Verizon told me these Google phones are "no maintenance" that they fix themselves. I guess we shall see.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Bouncer]

I just got the Google pixel XL 2 and it has that Oreo on it. So far what Verizon told me these Google phones are "no maintenance" that they fix themselves. I guess we shall see.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

They fix themselves. Lmao. You should have said.. "listen bro I'll buy the phone if you cut the bullshit."

[Bama]

They fix themselves. Lmao. You should have said.. "listen bro I'll buy the phone if you cut the bullshit."

[emoji848]

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

[Bouncer]

Phones don't fix them selves bro. It's no different than any other smartphone. I'm not saying it's a bad phone by any means. Just saying the salesman is talking out his ass.