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Installing a Newer Android System on an Older Android Smartphone

V

Vlad2

Lurker
When choosing a smartphone to buy, I have noticed that one smartphone released in 2017 has Android 7 system, whereas another released in 2018 has Android 8. However, the 2017 smartphone with Android 7 seems to be more advanced technologically than the smartphone with Android 8, and it has more memory.

If I buy the 2017 smartphone with the Android 7 system, will it then be possible to install a newer version of the system? Or is each smartphone designed only for one specific version of the system?
 
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Updates depend on the manufacturer, since they are device-specific. You can't just go out and get the latest version and install it on your own, it has to be released by the mfr and pushed out through your carrier (if it's a branded device) or directly if it's an unlocked version.
Generally speaking, higher end or flagship devices are more likely to receive updates during the period of time they are supported which is usually 2 or 3 years give or take. Lower-end models get fewer updates or sometimes none at all
 
usually most devices whether it is a flagship phone or not will only get about 2 major updates before moving on. so most phones can only get updated to a certain point. if a 2017 phone started on nougat, android 7, then you might get as far as pie, android 9. but like @Fox Mulder said updates will depend on the manufacturer and carrier.
 
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Thank you for the information.
The 2018 smartphone with Android 8 which I was comparing was DEXP AL140.
The 2017 smartphone with Android 7 was DEXP Ixion M340.

Apparently I will have to buy the 2018 smartphone in order to have the latest version of the system. Although the 2017 smartphone has twice as much RAM and camera resolution, the capacity of the battery in the first is shown to be 3,000 mAh.
 
well according to these specs the os is slightly different. they may come with an update to 7 and 8 respectively.
512 MB / 8 GB
Android OS v7.0 (Nougat)
https://droidchart.com/en/dexp/dexp-al140-al140-5542

1 GB / 8 GB
Android OS v6.0 (Marshmallow)
https://droidchart.com/en/dexp/dexp-ixion-m340-m340-3491

for me if those specs are correct i would recommend ixion m340 as it has more ram.

depending on what you want to do on your phone, tbh i would look for a phone that has at least 3gb of ram. especially if you want to eventually upgrade to pie (android 9) or android 10.

you can't do much with low ram and storage. you can mainly do emails, text and phone calls. do not expect much when you try to play games or use certain apps.
 
The reason why the company where I had looked up the smartphones had specified newer versions of the system may be because the newer versions had been installed before sale.

I need an inexpensive smartphone for recording some videos (without the need for much quality). 512 megabytes of RAM may be sufficient for this purpose.
 
It really won't be enough, even for the camera app to record effectively. You can get phones with 2gb RAM / 16GB storage for very little money. If you're nor bothered by brand names, have a look at some of the Chinese makers like Cubot, Doogee, Okitel and many others. If you ARE bothered about brands, then Nokia is your best bet, they have some nice budget phones and are apert of the Android One program, meaning that their phones are guaranteed updates to the latest version of Android for 2 years, and security updates for another year.
 
Agreed. Those phones may be cheap but they were well below acceptable specs even in the years when they were released. And I'd be slightly surprised if either ever received an update: phones like that usually don't get any support.

To put those specs into perspective, my 2013 HTC had 32GB storage and 2GB RAM and a higher resolution screen. The Galaxy S2 from 2011 had 1GB of RAM, 16GB storage and the same resolution display. I'd buy a decent second-hand phone rather than something like that, or look at the budget models of better manufacturers.
 
Sorry, but without context that is simply incorrect, and even in context it's dubious.

Most updates are patches rather than full updates. So they require that the previous version is still there - removing it, if you could, would render the update inoperable. Even major updates delivered over the air do not require you to remove the previous OS explicitly, and unless the bootloader is unlocked the user isn't able to do that anyway.

If you are flashing an official full ROM from a computer the update script may format the partition first, but you don't have to do it yourself.

And if you are flashing a custom ROM then you still do not need to format the system partition first. Some people do, but it is not at all necessary (I've flashed hundreds of ROMs in my time).

And it's all irrelevant if the manufacturer hasn't produced a newer version for the phone (the chances of custom ROMs for devices like this are slim).
 
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