Motorola has been slower than the competition in rolling out periodic Android firmware updates ever since Lenovo bought the company sometime in 2015. Several Moto devices were still running the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update until recently when the company rolled out the Android 7.0 Nougat update for a handful of devices.
Motorola has now updated its support page with the list of devices that will be receiving the Android 8.0 Oreo update in the next few weeks. The company has also uploaded the source code to AOSP just a few days earlier.
Interested users who would love to experience Android Oreo on their Moto devices can check out the full list of supported devices below:
• Moto Z
• Moto Z Droid
• Moto Z Force Droid
• Moto Z Play
• Moto Z Play Droid
• Moto Z2 Play
• Moto Z2 Force Edition
• Moto X4
• Moto G5
• Moto G5 Plus
• Moto G5S
• Moto G5S Plus
There are some surprising omissions from the list including the Moto G4 and G4 Plus, which have been Motorola's budget offerings from last year. It is quite sad to note that Motorola isn't supporting these relatively new devices, despite their marketing material explicitly suggesting that these phones would soon get updated to versions N and O of Android operating system.
Motorola has once again let down its users who purchased the Moto G4 smartphone with huge expectations of getting Google's latest Android updates. Earlier this year, OnePlus too had disappointed its OnePlus 2 users by cancelling the Nougat update and leaving it on Marshmallow, despite an earlier confirmation suggesting that the company would indeed roll out Android Oreo for the handset.
Moto G 2015 and Moto E 2015 users also got a similar treatment from the company when it prematurely dropped Android Nougat support for these smartphones. Moto E 2015 was left in the dark with just two incremental updates: Android 5.0.2 and Android 5.1, while the Marshmallow update was released sparingly in some select markets and was notably excluded from the US.
If the past is any indication, Moto Z2 and Moto X4 are expected to receive the Android Oreo update sometime in November or December, followed by Moto G5 and G5S phones in January-February 2018.
Moto Z (first-gen) lineup is expected to receive the new Oreo update around May 2018 for unlocked aka SIM-Free models, while the Droid Editions are likely to get the update by July-August 2018.
Those who are done waiting for Motorola and Lenovo to release the new update can switch over to the community developed custom ROMs, which offer you better features and more timely updates to help keep your device in good shape.
[Source: XDA]
