Your regular TV is far different from what the traditional TV used to be back in the days of your forefathers. Back then, if there was some color, it was considered to be a magical experience, while most of the world survived on black and white TV. Fast forward to today, and having a flat screen TV is not good enough anymore. There has to be more than just a sleek looking TV, how about the software or operating system that drives it? Sony has always been at the forefront of TV technology over the past few decades, and their mastery of the medium has not ceased to elicit wonders and a sense of amazement. In fact, each new generation of Sony TVs have always brought about a change to the TV industry -- and for the better, I might add. Sony was also the very first TV manufacturer to include Android TV into their TV sets in a native manner, and it seems that those TV sets are about to get a taste of Android 7.0 Nougat pretty soon.

Android 7.0 Nougat is the latest iteration of Google’s highly versatile mobile operating system, and it was launched in the third quarter of last year. In fact, not too many handsets are riding on Android 7.0 Nougat at the moment, although the newer batch of smartphones that hit the market these days which reside on the mid-range to high-end segment would most probably sport Android 7.0 Nougat running on it. In fact, it is a nice move on Sony’s part to ensure that Android 7.0 Nougat is going to take over the OS version on their range of Android TVs. Do bear in mind that Sony is yet again, taking a stride in the matter since there is a sizeable number of other manufacturers out there who have Android TV sets in the market without readying an update to keep them up to speed. Among the Android TV manufacturers that are in the market right now include Xiaomi with the Mi Box. Hopefully, the release of Android 7.0 Nougat on the Sony TV sets will act as a catalyst for the other Android TV manufacturers to do something about the situation.

It does seem as though the Android 7.0 Nougat update for Sony’s Android TVs is already rolling out. With the Sony X800D model having confirmed to have picked up the update, eyes are peeled open to see whether other models such as the Sony X850D and the Sony X930D will follow suit. However, it might be prudent to take extra care not to jump straight into the update first since there are some users out there who have issued complaints about major issues concerning the Sony Android TV, post-Nougat update installed. One user cited that video playback is now a mess, where the video would stop randomly most of the time. The only fix to that? To reset the TV, which is a tedious thing to do when all you would like for your TV to do is to work as it is meant to.

This just goes to show that upgrading to a new operating system version always has its fair share of risks, but then again, soak tests or limited beta releases are there to avoid something like this from happening. For a smart TV that carries a bunch of media apps and games, resetting it constantly is nothing but a nuisance. However, it is not all doom and gloom, since there are other users who have already performed the update, finding it to work faster than when it was running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow, with picture-in-picture functioning where live channels are concerned.