If you haven’t already heard, HTC’s Mo Versi has revealed that the standard HTC One M7 will not be updated to Android 5.1. The Google Play edition variant of the phone is expected to receive the update in the coming weeks as the latest Android update will address a handful of bugs that were introduced with the last update. Do why isn’t the HTC One M7 with HTC Sense getting the update? When HTC introduced HTC Advantage, it promised that it would update its flagship One phones “with major Android OS upgrades for up to two years from the initial launch date of the phone.” So the HTC One M7 should get Android 5.1, right?
Not really.
The bug fixes that come with Android 5.1 and bug fixes for stock Android. The reason HTC didn’t meet it’s 90 turnaround time to get Android 5.0 released for its phones is because HTC did the extra leg work already to fix the bugs on its own.
But what about all those new features that are baked into Android 5.1? They are all completely irrelevant:
- new animations: HTC Sense does not use the stock Android animations
- new Bluetooth and Wi-Fi quick settings: HTC Sense does not use the stock Android quick settings
- separate media and volume controls: HTC Sense has had separate media and volume controls for at least 3 years
- dual-SIM car support: HTC Sense has supported dual-SIM cards for at least 3 years
If you’re read the comments on other sites and see people’s complaints on Twitter, you might be under the impression that the HTC One M7 will not be receiving any future updates. While the phone is coming up on its two-year anniversary, no one at HTC has stated that the phone has reached end of life.
How about we save our complaints until there’s actually something to complain about.
@kennymaclean Only the GPE version of M7 will receive 5.1. Our target is early April. Thanks.
— Mo Versi (@moversi) March 18, 2015
Well, I have intentions to get the M9 and if Sprint doesn’t allow it, then I’ll get the M8
No doubt the developer community will continue to support the M7 after HTC has eol’ed it. That’s what happened with other “flagship” devices such as the Incredible and the Rezound.
I’m sure i’ll have 5.1 and Sense 7 soon from the community – which make me wonder why HTC don’t work with said community to bring these updates to as many HTC devices as possible? What about Sense 7 for the M7?
Because those custom updates are almost never as stable as the stock ones. At least, they are not certified to run properly on each and every phone under every condition possible.
Well said Nick, let’s not also forget that some of HTC’s applications have been getting updated via the Google Play Store, and I’m sure that will continue.
This article pretty much exemplifies how I feel about it. I’m not surprised that HTC back ported a lot of the fixes of 5.1 into 5.0, because they did the same with 4.4.4 to 4.4.3.
Also, the people complaining now should have been HTC users 3-4 years ago when you were lucky to get one update out of them and you’d NEVER know what the status was. The M7 went from 4.1 to 5.0, with everything in between and from Sense 5 to 5.5 to 6. I’d say that’s pretty great support, but a lot of people disagree. The only thing I would ask for is that they throw Sense 7 on the M7 and let that be its swan song (then it will feel “updated” for another year, and people by then will probably be looking for a replacement phone, anyway). Cheers.
Nick, I’ve had this nagging feeling lately,
It’s bugging me that I can’t seem to access any easter eggs on my htc One M8. Is it just me, or has htc chosen to disable them, if they had, do you know why?
Thanks, I loved the easter egg on a friend’s Moto G
HTC disables them. Always have.
Even back on Android 4.1 it wouldn’t work on my wife’s M7. Too bad because they’re fun.