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Android 7.1.1 in pictures: Nexus versus Pixel

Now that everything has 7.1, the "Pixel Exclusive" feature list is a lot shorter.

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  • Nexus versus Pixel, both on Android 7.1.1. Nexus phones don't get the new Pixel Launcher, which means no round icons and the old search bar.
  • Nexus phones also don't get the new Google System UI.
  • Both devices support app shortcuts. Do a long-press on an icon to get a jump list.
  • Pixel phones get a full-bleed app drawer and an extra column of app icons. Also, the calendar icon on the Pixel shows the current date.
  • Nexus phones don't get the Google Assistant. They're stuck with the old Google Search interface.
  • The main difference between the Assistant and non-Assistant is that some of the "fluffier" commands like "Tell me a joke" will just run a Google Search instead of answering you.
  • The highlight colors are still different. Pixel is blue, Nexus is teal.
  • "Night Light," a mode that turns the screen brown for supposedly better night viewing, isn't on the Nexus devices.
  • The Nexus phones get the new Android 7.1 emojis. These are mostly gender swaps for every previously gender-exclusive emoji.
    Google
  • New in 7.1: A "restart" option in the power menu.
  • The settings look the same, other than the color scheme. Nexus phones even get the "support" tab, which is a surprise.
  • Both have some new camera features like manual exposure control.
  • The "Moves" screen arrives on the Nexus, but it looks way better on the Pixel. Nexus devices are missing "Swipe for notifications" and "Double tap to check phone."
  • Both devices get this weird new call screen that looks like it's from a Samsung phone. What is this supposed to be? It's definitely not Material Design.
  • Another 7.1 change that made it to the Nexus phones: the new "pen" edit button at the top of the quick settings panel. (Center)
  • The new "Google Wallpaper" app doesn't come with the Nexus devices the way it does with the Pixel phones, but you can just install it from the Play Store.
  • Once installed, you'll find a few sections like "Live Earth," "Live Data," "New Elements," and "Sky High" are exclusive to the Pixel phones, but the rest are here.
  • Pixel and Nexus have different ringtone, notification, and alarm sounds.
  • "Power on Sounds" is a "finished booting" sound. Pixel only!
  • Both devices have a "Smart Storage" feature that works with Google Photos.

Android 7.1.1 came out for Nexus and Pixel devices this week, and while the Pixels just got a minor update from 7.1 to 7.1.1, the Nexus devices are moving from 7.0 to 7.1.1. This finally brings the older Nexus phones on par with Google's new flagships, the Pixel and Pixel XL.

Further Reading

Google Pixel review: The best Android phone, even if it is a little pricey
When the Pixel phones were first released, there was a good bit of confusion as to which new features were Pixel exclusive and which were Android 7.1 features that would be coming to all devices. To help clear things up, Google passed along a list in early October outlining which features went where. Now that we can compare the finished Android 7.1 product to that list, we have noticed a few differences. Here's the full software feature list as it stands today.

Pixel-exclusive features:

  • Google Assistant—Google voice commands, but with some personality and a new UI.
  • Pixel Launcher—Round icons, a new weather/search widget, a swipe-up app drawer, a dynamic calendar icon, and a new app drawer design.
  • Google system UI—Solid white navigation bar icons and slightly different (usually bluer) UI highlight colors.
  • Sounds and wallpapers—New Ringtone, notification, and alarm sounds. Some exclusive live wallpapers, too.

General Android 7.1 features (or at least, features that made it to the Nexus phones):

  • Touch-input latency improvements—Lots of general work was done to improve touch latency on Android. On 7.0, input latency could be as high as 48ms (a frame at 60FPS is 16ms); a rework of the graphics stack puts it at 28ms on the Pixel.
  • New emoji—The new 7.1 emoji are mostly new gender-swap emojis for many previously gender-exclusive emojis. So you get female astronauts and males getting a haircut.
  • Support tab—A quick way to access Google support from the settings screen. This was originally flagged as a "Pixel-Exclusive" feature.
  • New Camera app—Exposure adjustment, viewfinder grid modes, Smart Burst, and AE/AF Locking (No new video stabilization or white balance presets, though). Originally flagged as a "Pixel-Exclusive" feature.
  • Smart Storage—Automatic and manual options to remove things like backed-up pictures. Originally flagged as a "Pixel-Exclusive" feature.
  • New call screen—The call screen was reworked to have a weird blue gradient background.
  • App shortcuts—Like Apple's 3D Touch. Long-press on an app icon and get a list of shortcuts.
  • Google Wallpaper app—Not packed in but available on the Play Store. You don't get all the Pixel wallpapers, but there's a big collection in there.
  • Reset button—A long requested feature. There's now a "reset" button in the power menu.
  • Notification Panel tweaks—You get a pen-style "edit" button and an extra quick settings icon.

Features for “Android 7.1-native” devices that aren't exclusive to the Pixel but aren't coming to old devices:

  • "Seamless" A/B system updates—A dual system partition feature that lets the OS update one partition while you're still using the other one.
  • Night Light—A F.lux-style night mode that turns the screen brown for supposedly better night reading. This was originally slated for the Nexus phones, too, but Google ran into driver issues.
  • Fingerprint sensor gesture—You can swipe down on the Pixel's fingerprint sensor to open the notification panel. This was originally headed to Nexus phones, but there were more driver issues.
  • Daydream VR—7.1 has some Daydream improvements under the hood, but support for Google's new VR goggles seems to require at least a Snapdragon 820.

So if you're keeping track at home, the Support tab, camera UI improvements, and Smart Storage were originally said to be "Pixel-exclusive" but ended up coming to other devices after the reaction online. The Pixel exclusive list isn't that big today and is mostly aesthetic changes.

Further Reading

Was the Google Pixel built in a mere 9 months? It would explain a lot…
The biggest difference is the Google Assistant, and withholding it from the general Android population still seems crazy. Google is a search (and advertising) company, and it says Google Assistant is the future of Google Search. Relegating the future of the company to less than one percent of the Android install base seems like something that is bad for Google. The Assistant is built for a general rollout—as part of the general "Google" app, the code for the Assistant is already on nearly every Android phone. It seems inevitable that someday Google will activate the Assistant on every device.

As far as Android releases go, 7.1 (and 7.1.1) is an extremely minor release. 7.1 is the first in a "maintenance" release cycle for 7.0 Nougat, so we're not sure if this is the new normal or smaller than usual thanks to time taken up developing the Pixel phones. In a blog post yesterday, Google says it has "already started work on refinements and bug fixes for the next incremental update," so we might see yet another developer preview soon.

If you haven't gotten the 7.1.1 update yet, Google says it's slowly rolling out to Nexus devices. Rollout can take up to a month to reach 100 percent of users. If you want to brave manually doing it yourself, Google has full system images posted and OTA downloads.

Ron Amadeo Ron is the Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work. He loves to tinker and always seems to be working on a new project.

Channel Ars Technica

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