As teased by LG themselves a few weeks back, Google has in their official announcement of the (non-Beta) release of Nougat, advised that the LG V20 will be the first device to ship running Android 7.0.
Traditionally Google has had reference hardware in the form of Nexus devices ready to go for launch, but this time around things are a little different. The official line from Google is:
And there are many tasty devices coming from our partners running Android Nougat, including the upcoming LG V20 which will be the first new smartphone that ships with Android Nougat, right out of the box.
As you can see from the title image, Google and LG are working together closely on this one, with this first render of the LG V20 appearing on the updated Android.com site.
LG’s V20 is due to be announce on the 6th of September, but it’s unclear whether that device will reach Australia. Last years V10 was never launched in Australia, but as the first phone running Nougat it’s possible that LG may capitalise on the achievement and release it more broadly.
We’ll be checking in with LG Australia on any possible details of a launch here of the V20, but we don’t expect any offical announcements until the phone is actually announced in San Francisco next month. Until then, the fastest way to get a taste of Nougat is on the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus Player or Pixel C.
Well, if the first Nougat phone is the V20 and that launches on the 6th Sept, then the two Nexus phones seen transiting the FCC can’t launch before then. Although there IS a little wiggle room, in that ‘ships’ and ‘announced’ are two separate things… However, it’s unlikely that they can wait around forever. We are usually talking up to a month from FCC to launch – which puts us back in the apple-spoiling first to second week of September for some kind of announcement. Personally I’m waiting for a phone that meets my requirements before they pry my Nexus… Read more »