Member Reviews: Android N Preview #1

[pc747]

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Some of us been running it for a week and @DroidModderX has created a number of videos on the subject (which a list can be found here). But as I tend to do with many of these releases, I actually like to hear real world reviews. I personally dedicated my Nexus 6 to run the N preview all the way through as it is not by daily driver. So those running it let us know how long, what device(s), whether you dirty flashed/clean flashed, and what you like/dislike. Also let us know what bugs you have encountered, which will probably be many being this is an Alpha build.

Warning: For those wanting to try, the previews are not for the faint at heart as it (probably) will break your device. If you are not familiar with adb and how to unlock a bootloader I suggest you stand on the sideline unless until you do. Neither I or this forum will be liable for whatever complications you encounter as a result of this preview. As you have noticed I am not using my daily driver for this but a backup device.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Stealing my post from another thread on the subject...

Well, that was fun, but I'm currently installing apps after taking the OTA to return to Marshmallow.

Kinda reminded me of the old rooting and romming days. Fun for the weekend, but I need to be able to rely on my phone.

Nothing major, but I ran into some small bugs that were annoying...

Contacts app-Was at the home improvement store and needed to call my MIL to see if I could borrow their lawn tractor. Found her name in Contacts and tapped on it, but her display picture took up the whole screen and there was nothing I could tap to call her. After some fiddling with it, I discovered that her numbers, address, etc. would show up if I flipped it to landscape.

Also, when I made and received some calls, though I held the phone in portrait, it seemed like it was confused about orientation. The blue section that should've been on the top took up the left side and the contact picture took up the right side.

Camera-Would occasionally crash. One time, I launched it in landscape mode and the shutter button was overlaid on top of the button for switching between front and back cameras. That was fun.

Quick Toggles-Worked very well when the phone was unlocked. While on the lock screen though, if I pulled down the notification tray and tapped wifi or bluetooth, instead of toggling, it would act like I long pressed it. When those features were off, this would toggle them on and then give me options of devices/networks to connect to. When they were on, it required a second tap to toggle them off, because it would simple give that list.

Some apps seemed to have trouble reading certain information needed. Upon launch, a couple of apps would give me a long string explaining what failed.

Again, these aren't huge problems, but definitely reminded me that this build isn't final. Also reminded me of some of the half-baked roms and etc I used to try to use. It may have even reminded me of the OG android days without rooting and roms. Just a bit buggy. Amazing to think how far the software really has come since my days with the G1.

Though it was fun for nostalgic purposes, I'd rather have the phone be reliable and dependable.

I'm definitely excited about the direction they're headed though!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[thunderbolt_nick]

NOTE: I am still using the N Preview as a daily driver because...well I like being on the bleeding edge. I know I'll bleed but I don't mind as long as there's a way back which Google made SOOOOOOO much easier.

Issues

Some apps seemed to have trouble reading certain information needed. Upon launch, a couple of apps would give me a long string explaining what failed.

Had the same problem. Most of them were messaging or video apps.

Camera-Would occasionally crash. One time, I launched it in landscape mode and the shutter button was overlaid on top of the button for switching between front and back cameras. That was fun.

I didn't have this exact problem. Mine would fail when I switched from still camera to video mode. It will sometimes crash on me or say it can't access the camera.

Flashlight - For some odd reason I can't get it to activate from Quick settings. I know it works because I take pictures with flash and have no issues.
Notification Shade - There's this really annoying thing that happens. Whenever there is more than one notification displayed with multiple lines of text, it won't let me access quick actions. It covers.
Lock Screen Notifications - I don't know if this was intentional, but when I try to swipe notifications away it will instead show settings gears instead of just dismissing. I have to unlock the phone to dismiss. I know it would do this in MM when it was persistent like Music controls and whatnot, but this is with ANY notification. I haven't checked, but I haven't changed the privacy settings to show all notification content. It is set to Hide Sensitive info.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

On the camera, that may have been the case for me as well. I couldn't remember the exact circumstances.

I enjoyed my time in the bleeding edge as well. Like I said, it reminded me of the good old days. But, I need to be sure my phone works at all times these days.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[thunderbolt_nick]

On the camera, that may have been the case for me as well. I couldn't remember the exact circumstances.

I enjoyed my time in the bleeding edge as well. Like I said, it reminded me of the good old days. But, I need to be sure my phone works at all times these days.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

Luckily, I work from home so my actual need for a phone is minimal, but if I did work outside my house, I'd probably be in the same boat as you.

 

[Mustang02]

Who is still running Android n? I'm about to load it on my 5x.

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I'm not. I ran it for a few days before sending my 6P off for repair, but I was so happy to have it back, I decided to stick with the stable M build. Seems like it was a bit less glitchy for those few days, but there are still some little things here and there that bugged me.

For one, tapping the quick toggles while on the lockscreen wouldn't toggle wifi/BT/etc, but would open the window to the settings where you could then toggle them. Hoping that's just a slight glitch that will be rectified in later builds, because I toggle things off and on much more frequently than I need to dive into the settings or pick a new network/device/etc.