LG V30 arrived in August 2017 with pre-loaded Android 7.1.2 Nougat while the G6 flagship hit the markets March 2017 with pre-installed Android 7.0 Nougat. In the beginning of the year, LG started the rollout of Android 8.0 Oreo for V30 in the States and the beta test for G6 in China.
The next android update for the LG flagships is Android 8.1 Oreo, since both these flagships are included in the Android Enterprise Recommended Program by Google. LG already confirmed that these flagships will receive the Android 8.1 Oreo update. As per the program, the device should pushout the Security updates within 90 days of their release.
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Google release the Android 8.1 first developer preview in October and the second preview in November 2017. Finally, on December 5th, the consumer edition of Android 8.1 arrived. Till now, the Pixel, Pixel 2, Nexus 5X, 6P, some Nokia devices and Essential Phone devices received the update.
Editor’s Pick : Android Pie update is coming soon for LG V30 and V30S ThinQ.
It seems that LG may already started the development of Android 8.1 Oreo for V30 and G6 flagships. Albeit, the official rollout dates haven’t announced, we expect that the South Korean tech giant might begin the rollout in mid-August or September. Perhaps, unlocked LG V30 devices will receive the Android 8.1 update earlier than the unlocked G6 devices. The Carriers may take upto Q4 of 2018 to begin the rollout of Android 8.1 to V30 and G6 in the US. The official rollout dates of Android 8.1 will be revealed in coming days.
What’s new in Android 8.1
Google made many remarkable refinements with the Android 8.1 update to Oreo. The Neural Networks API 1.0 is one of the new features arrived with the update. The improvements of Android 8.1 include Bluetooth Battery levels, Wi-Fi Speed Labels, Buttery smooth scrolling Notification alert limits, Improved Battery section and so on.
Android 8.1 Neural Network API
The Neural Network API is one of the remarkable new features arrived with the Android 8.1 update. With the API, a base layer is provided to Neural Networks like Caffe2, TensorFlow Lite etc. So massive improvements in speed will come to the On-device Machine learning and the Artificial Intelligence will be enhanced. In the next Android 9.0 P update, Google introduced an much improved version of Neural Network API 1.1.
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Bluetooth Battery Levels
Bluetooth Battery levels in the Quick Settings Panel is one of the refinements in the Android 8.1 Oreo. So LG V30 and G6 users can check the battery levels of their connected Bluetooth devices straight from the home screen. In the Bluetooth section, users can check the Battery percentage of the connected devices.
Refined Battery Section
The Bluetooth Section in the Settings Menu has refined in the Android 8.1 update with the information about the abnormal behaviour of the battery draining apps. So users can check the battery drain by disabling the specific requests for the App or totally removing the app.
For example if the Maps app is draining battery through excess Location requests, then user can disable Location access for the Maps to stop the battery drain. More battery optimizations for LG V30 and G6 may arrive with the Android 9.0 P update.
Speed Labels to Wi-Fi
Google assigned speed labels to open Wi-Fi networks with the Android 8.1 update, so that users can easily connect to a fast open Wi-Fi network without checking. The labels appears as Slow, OK, Fast and Very Fast. The networks with the label Slow, offer speed 0 to 1 Mbps and suitable for making phonecalls and sending texts.
The ‘OK’ labelled networks give speeds from 1 to 5 Mbps and users can read webpages, use social media, and stream music. Next, the ‘Fast’ labelled networks give speeds from 5 to 20 Mbps and users can stream most videos. Finally, the ‘Very Fast’ networks might be very few but offer speeds more than 20 Mbps and users can stream very high quality videos over them. However, at this time the feature works only for open Wi-Fi networks.
Refined Power Menu with Night mode
In the Android 8.1 Oreo update, Google much refined the stock power menu with new interface and the addition of night mode. The New Power Menu appears in Light background with Dark font in Day time and automatically changes to Dark Background with Light font during Night time. So the Power menu reduces strain on the user’s eyes during Night time.
The new Power Menu interface also looks gorgeous and the position of the menu shifted to the side of the screen. The new Position of the menu is quite easier to tap on the options with single hand. In the previous position, on the Phones with massive displays, users had to use both the hands to power off or restart their devices. The new position is convenient to operate even with single hand. More refinements to the Power Menu will arrive with the upcoming Android 9.0 P update.
New Restart and Shutdown screens
With the Android 8.1 update, Google brought new Restart and Shutdown screens. Previously, in Android 8.0, on tapping the Restart button, the Shutting down text appears instead of Restarting, so in this update Google fixed it, now it appears as Restarting with colorful theme.
So on tapping the Restart button in the Power Menu, the ‘Restarting’ text appears at the centre of the display with a green overlay all over. While shutting down, the ‘Shutting Down’ text appears at the centre with a black overlay all over the display.
Update on 27/4/2018 :
Finally, LG announced the rollout of Android Oreo for LG G6 flagship. On Monday, April 30, the rollout of Oreo for 2017’s LG flagship will commence, G5 and V20 will follow. The android version number of the update is 8.0 and all the AI features of V30 and V30 Thinq flagships will come to G6 with this update. This is the first update rolling out through the Software Upgrade Centre which was opened up recently.
The G6 devices South Korea will receive the update first and later the rollout will spread to carrier locked and unlocked editions of G6 in the US and other markets. There is still no word about the Android 8.1 update for G6 and V30 flagship. Most likely after rolling out the Android 8.0 update, LG will start the development of Android 8.1.
Update on 15/7/2018 :
It seems the rollout of Android 8.0 Oreo for LG G6 in the states has completed and users are waiting for Android 8.1. In May, two major US carriers, Verizon and Sprint began the rollout of Oreo for their G6 devices and later in June, the unlocked variants received the update. The South Korean tech gaint announced previously, that unlocked G6 would receive the update by April 30th, but again the company missed it and finally started the rollout on June 6th. The other two major US carriers AT&T and T-Mobile also rolledout the update for G6 in June. Finally, US Cellular started the rollout on July 9th for LG G6 devices.
LG still hasn’t announced when will be the rollout of Android 8.1 for G6 and V30 flagships.
Update on 25/9/2018 :
Although, LG announced that the Android 8.1 update is coming to V30 and G6 flagships, there is still no sign of the update. However, according to some leaks, the South Korean tech giant has started the development of the Android Pie update for LG V30 series. So LG may skip the Android 8.1 update or rollout in limited regions for G6 or V30 flagships. More details about the upcoming android update for V30 and G6 will be revealed soon.
We will update this post soon with more details about the Android 8.1 update for LG V30 and G6, so keep visiting regularly.
