ASUS has updated two models of the ZenFone 3 to Android 7.0 Nougat after having halted the rollout of the software back near the middle of January, and after having updated the ZenFone 3 Deluxe just last week. Today’s updates are hitting the ZenFone 3 with the model number ZE520KL as well as the model number ZE552KL, so any users with either version of the device will want to keep an eye out for the update to show up. Keeping that in mind, it’s possible that the update may not appear for all users right away and if that happens to be the case with your own device, you can still check manually to see if the software update is available from the settings menu.
According to the release notes that ASUS has posted over at their ZenTalk thread they recommend that all users who are going to initiate the update do a backup of their data to an SD card although it’s not required, and they also mention that the update file is 1.5GB, which means users will need to have at least that much space available on their internal storage, although realistically you’ll want probably double that so you have space left after the update file has been installed. It’s also not a bad idea to make sure that you download the software while connected to Wi-Fi as 1.5GB is a nice chunk of data to eat through using LTE.
In addition to the obvious changes that are part of this software update, like the addition of app shortcuts, configurable quick settings tiles, and multi-window support, ASUS lists off changes that are specific to the ZenFone 3, of which there appears to be a handful. One of those is that they have removed the Share Link feature from the device with this update, and they note that any users who update their phones from Marshmallow to Nougat will no longer be able to use Share Link. They also note that touch performance has been improved, and they have removed a few other things like redundant app shortcuts, the PC Suite, and the ability to “tap and hold” to show the menu, which was located in the Touch key setting page. In its place though, ASUS has added the ability to tape and hold to activate multi-window.