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March 25, 2019: The Vivo Nex S is finally receiving the update to Android 9 Pie. The flagship device, the first to ship with a pop-up camera, has been testing the OS for months now and finally, it’s here.
The Pie update has plenty on board, including a new UI, new features, and a revamped AI experience. Thus, it weighs a huge 2.7GB, so be sure to connect to a stable Wi-Fi connection before you begin upgrading the Nex S to Pie.
Original article below:
Of the popular Chinese smartphone vendors, only Huawei, OnePlus and Xiaomi are usually active when it comes to rolling out regular software updates. As for the rest, among them Vivo and Oppo, software updates can be hard to come by, but this doesn’t mean they never update their devices.
If you own any Vivo phone, you might be asking whether it will receive the Android 9 Pie update from the company.
While we cannot give you any certainty at this point in time, we do have a rough idea of if and when some Vivo phones will be updated to Android 9 Pie (see new features). The post also highlights some of the things to expect when the update arrives and alternatives for those devices that won’t be officially updated to Pie.
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Device list
Vivo hasn’t given an official statement on if and when most of its phones will be updated to Android 9 Pie. However, we’ve seen the company roll out some Android OS updates to certain devices in the X series and we expect the same to continue with the Vivo Android 9 Pie update. To this effect, below are the Vivo phones that we think will be upgraded to Android Pie, officially.
| Device | Android Pie eligibility | Expected release date |
| Vivo X21/X21 UD | Eligible | Q1 2019 (Beta available in China) |
| Vivo X21i | Eligible | Q1 2019 |
| Vivo Nex A | Eligible | Q1 2019 (Beta available in China) |
| Vivo Nex S | Available | Released on March 24, 2019 |
| Vivo V11 | Eligible | Q1 2019 (Spotted in benchmarks) |
| Vivo V9 | Unknown | — |
| Vivo V9 Youth | Unknown | — |
| Vivo Y71 | Unknown | — |
| Vivo Y81 | Unknown | — |
| Vivo Y83 | Unknown | — |
Expected release date
- Only few Vivo devices to get Android 9 Pie
- Stable version available for Vivo Nex S
- More devices to join the party in Q2 and Q3 2019
In response to a query about when the Vivo X21 will receive Android Pie, the Chinese company hinted that it would begin the official Pie rollout in Q4 2018, which indeed happened, albeit the beta version. As usual, there was no specific release date given, but the fact that Pie beta is available should help hasten things a little bit.
Well, as of March 25, 2019, users of the Vivo Nex S can download and install Android Pie on their handsets, with more devices expected to get Pie in Q2 and Q3 2019. We will keep you up to date.
Related: Will Android Pie updates roll out as easy as pie?
What to expect
Vivo phones come dressed in Funtouch OS on top of stock Android. This is the skin that gives Vivo phones the feel and experience the company thinks is right for Android, and it’s not the same thing you’ll come across when using devices like Google Pixel, Essential Phone or even Nokia 7 Plus.
Still, this doesn’t mean you’ll miss out on the core Android Pie features like app actions, app slices, gestures for navigation, digital wellbeing, smart replies, better notification management, and so on, however, we still don’t know what type of tweaks Vivo plans to bake into the next version of Funtouch OS.
You can check out all the new Android Pie features here. If interested, you can also take a quick peek at what the future holds in Android Q.
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Unofficial Android Pie update
With not so many phones on the expected list of phones that will receive the Vivo Android 9 Pie update, some people may have to turn to unofficial updates in order to get a taste of the latest dessert from Google. At the moment, there are a good number of Android Pie ports that are already serving certain users perfectly well, but there’s still no room for Vivo phones just yet.
The incoming LineageOS 16, which is based on Android 9 Pie, is expected to include support for some Vivo phones, but we still can’t tell which ones at this moment. On the brighter side, we’ll keep an eye on this and other custom ROMs and update this post regularly.
Related: Best Andriod phones under $400
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