Sweet Sweet Nougats (3 of 4)

Stable? As much as my 8 month old

So, the big question on everyones mind when it comes to the beta preview of Android Nougat is stability. I see it everywhere posted on forums, articles, and blog posts. For the most part, on Developer Preview 5, it is very stable. I’ve had pretty good luck with it so far, with no crashes as of writing. Now that doesn’t mean I wwon’t have crashes, but for now, it’s all good in the hood.

Now that is only speaking for the operating system. In regards to apps running on the system, the story isn’t so rosey. Mainly I’ve had issues with social networking sites that use the camera, such as Google Plus or Fenix for Twitter. These have crashed a few times in use, but not to the point I was worried. In regards to other apps I’m using, it’s not a long list.

I have Microsoft Word installed, but I honestly haven’t used it for more than a few minutes to test out the cool factor of using a well made tablet app. Mainly what I am using is as follows.

JuiceSSH - SSH’ing into my server in the cloud.
Termux - Local terminal, which will probably replace JuiceSSh once I’m happy with the styling piece that’s currently broken on Android Nougat.
GReader - RSS aggrigator. I don’t use this as much on the tablet, I use this more on my phone, but it’s there incase I want to digest an article or two.
GMail - My prefered email application. I’ve tried to switch to Inbox, but it’s just not for me.
Google Drive Suite - I’m a heavy Google “Docs” user, so this was a must have. So far so good, although the document editing software seems a bit lacking for tablet support. It works, but far from optimal.
Evernote - Perfect for creating new notes and searching for old notes. Well optimized for the tablet.
Trello - I’m still experimenting with the platform, it’s installed, looks great on a tablet, but I’m still getting used to it.

That’s about it for apps that I’m using for productivity. Of course I have a lot of media consumption apps installed on the tablet, but those are pretty standard fair.

Multitasking

Multitasking on a tablet with Android Nougat. In a word, it’s ‘cool’. I haven’t made much use of it yet, though, as it’s rare that I’m working between two apps locally on the tablet. For the most part I’m using a tmux session in the cloud that splits the window up for me, negating the need for multiwindow on the tablet it self.

Alt-tab is quick, though, and seems much improved over the early reviews, of course this tablet has seen many improvements over the past few months, so I suppose that’s no surprise. This also goes along with..

Context Switching

This, was an area that I wanted to imporove on when moving my entire workflow to a tablet and a remote server, and, it’s awesome. I’m so happy with things so far. It has been an adventure to say the least, but a fun one. While some areas have been challenging in regards to moving my workflow, they are good challenges as I’m forced to learn the intracies of the build process as opposed to hiding them behind a few buttons in an IDE. I feel my wrists are now in much better shape due to eleviating the mouse and moving to a more keyboard focused workflow.

Weefee

Another major drawback of the initial reviews was the wifi performance. I’m leaving this under software only because after updating the device, it seems to perform much better, even side by side with my Nexus 6. While things drop out a bit in one corner of my house, all of my devices tend to have trouble there, so I’m not chalking it up to the tablet itself and more of the wifi coverage in my home.

Conclusion

All in all, I’d say software wise, this has met my expecations, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I did a lot of research before purchasing this device, and Androud Nougat has been just icing on the cake. I’d say if you’re on the fence, and you find purchasing a premium device to be worth it, go for it, you won’t be let down by the software. And even though this workflow isn’t for everyone, I’d say it’s worth giving a shot, I don’t think you’ll be dissapointed, just as long as you don’t set your expecations through the roof.

Until next time, stay tuned!