Are Android updates hardware-limited?

[hstroph]

Greetings, I'm new here so forgive me please if I'm in the wrong forum with this question, but I thought that it would probably be an newbie FAQ and I don't find it here.

Are all Android phones able to accept the most recent Android release, or are they somehow version-limited due to hardware or other constraints?

If I were to buy a GSM phone with Android 2.3, and then unlocked and rooted it, would I be able to download Android 4.2 from Google and placce it on the phone?

I'm very new to all this, and feel that I need to get some basic info before I ask other questions about particular phones in "Devices/Carrier Comparisons" forum.

 

[D-U-R-X]

Hello and welcome to the forums hstroph - thanks for joining!!

Not all phones get the most up to date releases of Android officially (from carriers/manufacturers). It is often the case that custom ROM's are developed by the community for many of the devices that no longer get updates officially. It is worth noting that phones are only supported by developers who have an interest in them, meaning that some phones inevitably get left out in the cold, so to speak.

I am sure that other members will be able to give you a little more advice

Cheers,
D

 

[Daniel Jones]

Are all Android phones able to accept the most recent Android release, or are they somehow version-limited due to hardware or other constraints?

If I were to buy a GSM phone with Android 2.3, and then unlocked and rooted it, would I be able to download Android 4.2 from Google and placce it on the phone?

Hey hstroph
No, not all phones get the latest android version updates from manufacturers, mostly they gets upgraded to the next version when the manufacturer releases it.
You can root you android device to higher version if cusom ROM have been released for the device from communities. Since there are a large number of android phone in the market not all devices gets latest android version custom ROM.

 

[Hadron]

You can download the latest android source code from google, but you'd have to build it for your device (which is more work than it sounds, and may involve solving problems like the lack of drivers for your hardware). That's why most of us rely on the manufacturer or other developers to do this.

My advice would be that if you want Android 4 you buy a phone that already has it available. To be sure of getting the latest updates through official channels you want a Google Nexus device. If you are interested in custom ROMs, a popular, high end device will generally have more dev support than a low-end or obscure one (so on a budget an older top device like a Galaxy S2 will have more support than say a more recent mid-range Huawei).

Don't expect to ever get an update on a cheap off-brand model!

 

[chanchan05]

The easiest answer actually is: YES IT IS HARDWARE LIMITED.

Yes while it is possible that manufacturers like Samsung to not release updates for devices, and that device may have a third party ROM you can manually install to upgrade it, not all devices have the hardware capability to install the latest Android. For example I surely doubt some of the older or entry level Android phones with 600Mhz ARM11 CPUs and no graphics chips can run ICS or JB very well. Kind of like forcing a Pentium 4 PC running 800Mhz to run Win7. It MAY run, but not very well.

 

[Mayhem]

Which phone do you have? Maybe one of us can recommend a custom ROM. While it may not be the latest version, you get other advantages like being able to live without bloatware. That, IMO, is reason enough to run a custom ROM.

 

[hstroph]

You can download the latest android source code from google, but you'd have to build it for your device (which is more work than it sounds, and may involve solving problems like the lack of drivers for your hardware). That's why most of us rely on the manufacturer or other developers to do this.

My advice would be that if you want Android 4 you buy a phone that already has it available. To be sure of getting the latest updates through official channels you want a Google Nexus device. ...

I've been lurking AF for a couple weeks, and I found myself favoring the Galaxy Nexus GSM because of the enthusiasm shown here for it, so I downloaded unlt.sh (a wonderful Linux tool, BTW), the 51-android.rules udev definitions for USB connectivity, and the Android and Java SDKs in preparation for perhaps doing a little work.

I've downloaded yakju-jzo54k-factory-92ff9457.tgz (Android 4.1 GSM "Maguro") and find that it contains:

flash-base.sh
flash-all.sh
radio-maguro-i9250xxlf1.img
image-yakju-jzo54k.zip
bootloader-maguro-primelc03.img

Do I misunderstand that if I purchased a used Galaxy Nexus GSM from e.g. eBay with Android 4.0, I could run the shell scripts to install 4.1? Would I really need to purchase the phone from Google Store to then install 4.2 in the same manner when it becomes available? Or 5.x? Is that what you mean by "That's why most of us rely on the manufacturer or other developers to do this."

Initially, I wanted the Galaxy SIII but the price is beyond my means at present. One of the desirable features was the capability for storage, and I was considering a 64GB microSDXC Class 10 UHS-1 memory card for apps, data, etc. Since both the SIII and Nexus are touch screen Android devices, I assume (mistakenly?) that apps for one will run on the other.

The Galaxy Nexus though seems to only present internal 16GB storage, so I hesitate to purchase it even from Google, and am at somewhat at a loss as to how to proceed with my first smartphone purchase.

Everyone here seems very helpful, hence my willingness to expose my inexperience and lack of knowledge. I see a PM from D-U-R-X suggesting hands-on experience at a phone store (the nearest is a 4-hr. round-trip, hence my desire to shop and purchase online), so maybe I'll resort to "Device/Carrier Comparisons" for the actual phone choice.

Right now I just wanted to better understand the Android OS choices, and I thank all of you for your considerations and responses.

 

[ExtremeNerd]

The easiest answer actually is: YES IT IS HARDWARE LIMITED.

Yes while it is possible that manufacturers like Samsung to not release updates for devices, and that device may have a third party ROM you can manually install to upgrade it, not all devices have the hardware capability to install the latest Android. For example I surely doubt some of the older or entry level Android phones with 600Mhz ARM11 CPUs and no graphics chips can run ICS or JB very well. Kind of like forcing a Pentium 4 PC running 800Mhz to run Win7. It MAY run, but not very well.

This is the most simple answer. Older phones are limited by hardware. Newer phones are not. I would safely say anything newer, and including, the EVO 4G can run JB well. The problem then becomes partitions.

Newer software versions are obviously larger. Manufacturers don't always plan for the future, and will keep the software partition as small as possible to maximize storage space. This is easily changed when flashing a custom ROM, but that requires a full wipe. OEMs know that most people who buy their phones don't want to go through the hassle of setting up the phone AGAIN, so updates don't happen. I would say this is a major reason (besides money) why older phones don't get updated.

 

[Hadron]

A Nexus that was originally sold unlocked from Google would receive updates over the air from Google, without you having to use any shell scripts to flash anything. This would still be true if you bought it second hand. Unless it had already been rooted, in which case I'd suggest flashing custom ROMs to get updates or else unrooting if you wanted to get them over the air (OTA updates on a rooted phone generally cause problems, and I can't see why the Nexus would be different).

I don't actually own a Nexus so am not familiar with the details of all of the update methods - if those images are built for the Galaxy Nexus then fastboot flashing them sounds a plausible update method to me, but I doubt most Nexus owners do it that way.

My point about "most of us relying on manufacturers or developers" was that the images are built for particular devices - if you were to flash an img built for a Galaxy Nexus onto a Galaxy S3 you'd almost certainly have a brick on your hands! Hence for most handsets you'd need to build an image yourself from source (far from trivial) or rely on someone else making one - you can't just download it from Google.

Apps for one phone will in general run on another. There can be exceptions, e.g. where the app is only compatible with certain screen resolutions, or some android versions (e.g. an app using Android 4 features won't run on 2.3), but most apps run on most phones.

As it happens, the main reason I don't own a Nexus is the one you highlighted - I need more than 16GB storage. Also remember that when a manufacturer quotes storage, that generally includes the space needed by the OS, so the amount available to the user is going to be less than that. A shame, because if they released one with 48-64 GB I'd buy it on the spot (32 GB is a bit marginal for me, less than that is a deal-breaker).

 

[dan330]

yes.. and no
sometimes.. and depends

exceptions for Nexus phones (they get supported longer)
and community developers supported (till it gets boring)

yeah.. it gets confusing. so.. you have a lot of reading to do.

 

[hstroph]

...
Newer software versions are obviously larger. Manufacturers don't always plan for the future, and will keep the software partition as small as possible to maximize storage space. This is easily changed when flashing a custom ROM, but that requires a full wipe. OEMs know that most people who buy their phones don't want to go through the hassle of setting up the phone AGAIN, ...

Thanks for raising that idea of "a full wipe" with qualification of "most people". I suspect many here in AF are statistical outliers.:smokingsomb:

Of course one would backup the entire Android device before making any changes. (Yeah, right.) In the "Maguro" file mentioned previously, I find a
image-yakju-jzo54k.zip containing:

Archive: image-yakju-jzo54k.zip
Length Date Time Name
--------- ---------- ----- ----
4472832 2009-01-01 00:00 boot.img
4823040 2009-01-01 00:00 recovery.img
410365584 2009-01-01 00:00 system.img
140856312 2012-10-03 22:09 userdata.img
93 2012-10-02 15:03 android-info.txt
--------- -------
560517861 5 files

Is this what is meant by a "ROM"? If so, would one be able to replace the "userdata.img" in the zip file with the "backed-up" userdata.img? e.g.:

zip -r image-yakju-jzo54k.zip userdata.img

before running the installation scripts? One assumes that because a full backup exists, any subsequent problems could be corrected by a full restore?