
Sony Mobile: Build AOSP Nougat 7.0 - andmarios
http://developer.sonymobile.com/build-aosp-nougat-7-0/
======
tdkl
For clarification Google took out support for the popular 800/801 chip from
AOSP which meant vendors wouldn't pass CTS if they update to Nougat anyway.
Seems that the requirement for N is having a Vulcan/OpenGL ES 3.1 capable
device[1]. Which is a bit bullshit from the side that in regular usage this
isn't warranted and that even target apps for that (entertainment) don't have
those kind of support.

So, since Sony Z3 series running this SOC was very popular (and completely
capable of running Android 7, Z3 even had a N preview), seems Sony will try to
hint the community into building a custom ROM.

But probably it will have incomplete/unstable camera binaries, because they
aren't open source.

Android is a mess.

[1]
[http://www.androidcentral.com/Android-7-snapdragon-800](http://www.androidcentral.com/Android-7-snapdragon-800)

~~~
andmarios
I believe the answer will turn to be encryption support. Snapdragon 800/801
doesn't have instructions for AES operations acceleration (the equivalent of
AES-NI on Intel processors) and Google seems to want to make encryption a
standard feature of Android.

~~~
tadfisher
From the 6.0 CTS:

> For device implementations supporting full-disk encryption and with Advanced
> Encryption Standard (AES) crypto performance above 50MiB/sec, the full-disk
> encryption MUST be enabled by default at the time the user has completed the
> out-of-box setup experience. If a device implementation is already launched
> on an earlier Android version with full-disk encryption disabled by default,
> such a device cannot meet the requirement through a system software update
> and thus MAY be exempted.

This doesn't refute your point, just illustrating the previous requirement for
FDE. Curious to see the 7.0 CTS standards when they're published.

~~~
e12e
Fwiw my z3+ runs fine with fde enabled (android 6.0.1 stock Sony rom).

------
amq
AOSP directly from the manufacturer... Almost too good to be true. _rubbing my
eyes_

~~~
Ambroos
Sony has been doing it for a while for the Z-range. In fact, they even
provided N Preview images for the Z3, as the first and only non-Nexus.

The Xperia Z has a fully functional (all hardware, no major issues) Android
4.4 build a week after the 4.4 sources were released. It was the first non-
Nexus with a working KitKat. Sony provided the right stuff on GitHub and their
devices are very easy to develop for.

~~~
kelnos
The only caveat, of course, is that if you unlock the bootloader on at least
the Z3 and up, you lose a bunch of "protected" functionality, including what
makes the camera on these devices great. It's for this reason that my Z5c is,
and will likely remain, forever locked.

I used a root exploit to obtain permanent root on my old Z3c, but it felt
kinda pointless since I couldn't install CM without unlocking the bootloader.
(Yes, locked root made it possible to back up the DRM partition, but running
CM without the DRM partition intact and the bootloader unlocked meant living
with sub-optimal camera performance, so that was a non-starter for me too.)

So yes, Sony's devices are "easy to develop for", if you don't mind living
with crippled hardware features (permanently, in the case of the Z5) once you
unlock the device.

~~~
tdkl
It's also hilarious that they're protecting their knowhow like this, where
Sony imaging postprocessing of taken pictures is really bad.

They ship capable camera sensors on their devices and are outperformed by
other vendors who use their same sensors, but don't suck at image processing.

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d33
Just curious, have they sorted out the updating problem already?

