

There was a time when Android phone manufacturers promised the world with their software update ambitions. Very few lived up to these ambitions and since then they have learnt to not promise anything but to give a lot of waffle and mention that it is being discussed.

Several companies though have managed to be able to deliver timely upgrades to their devices with not just security upgrades but also Android version upgrades. Motorola is one of these and today have announced their latest series of upgrades.

Beginning with their moto X4 Motorola is rolling out Android 8.0 Oreo to a number of devices, including devices released in 2016. The Motorola devices which will be receiving the update from today are:

moto x4

moto Z

moto Z Play

moto Z2 Play

moto G5

moto G5 Plus

moto G5S

moto G5S Plus

moto G4 Plus

The update for the X4 is over 1.1GB and includes much of the usual Oreo goodness including Autofill logins, faster speeds and longer battery life, PIP and new emojis. Notably an improvement in the camera performance and capture speeds for photos with depth information, a decrease in the storage used by the system files by up to 2GB and increased stability are a feature of the X4 update. The updates also bring the security patch to the December patch.

Motorola make great phones with very minimal alteration (breaking) of the core Android operating system and therefore it seems are able to deliver timely updates to a much greater range of devices than nearly every other manufacturer out there. Those other manufacturers should take heed of this by Motorola and being to plan accordingly for the futures of their own phones (being stuck on Android 6.0 on a 2016 flagship is not good enough).

If you own any of the above devices keep an eye out for the Oreo update that should be inbound any day now. Remember this is a staggered rollout, as all phone updates are these days so be patient and let us know when you begin to receive yours.

Bravo Motorola. Two HUGE thumbs up for you.

Update: The media release, as received from Motorola today, is included below: