Even back in October, ZTE was able to share screenshots of their Axon 7 Nougat update. Which definitely had us believe the update was around the corner, except that wasn’t the case. Though, today, ZTE has begun the Nougat preview program for Axon 7 users in USA, whose device carries the model no. A2017U.

To join the program, you have to abide by their Non-Disclosure Agreement, finish assigned tasks and surveys when asked, and be fully ready to provide them with a bug report when required. You also need to have an account at ZTE USA Community.

If you satisfy or can satisfy the above condition pretty easily — which you should if you want a taste of Nougat already under the Preview program — then hop on to the registration URL below and fill it up and submit it to ZTE to enroll into the program. ZTE will let you know when selected.

→ ZTE Axon 7 Nougat preview enroll form

ZTE will announce the specific dates of Nougat preview rollout and finish later on, but you can think of stable Nougat release to start rolling out sometime in January 2017 now.

Make sure you appropriately backup your device, as there is a chance your personal data and files may get removed when updating from Marshmallow to Nougat under preview program. ZTE has also made it clear that downgrade from Nougat to Marshmallow won’t be possible.

Also read: Moto G4 and G4 Plus Nougat

Recently, ZTE announced a new update (B08 build) for fixing messaging issues, and improving camera and device performance in general for Axon 7 model no. A2017G.

While it would take ZTE sometime to bring you Nougat, you can get to experience it via unofficial channel CM14 custom ROM.