Most of Lenovo’s Moto G4 family received their update to Android 7.0 Nougat last month, but according to a Lenovo spokesperson, owners of the Moto G4 Play will have to wait for the new software build until June. Up until now, there had been no information on when exactly will the update roll out to the Moto G4 Play, which likely left some users thinking that they would be getting their update at the same time the rest of the Moto G4 handsets do. The Moto G4 Play will likely be receiving the same software that’s running on its more expensive siblings, though that’s yet to be officially confirmed.
The discrepancy in the hardware among the members of the Moto G4 lineup is likely to blame for the extra wait time. The Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus both use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, but the Moto G4 Play is powered by a weaker system-on-chip. While the Moto G4 family’s cheapest member is only $100 short of its siblings, that price difference brings the processor down to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410, an updated member of the same processor lineage found in the Moto E from the 2015 4G LTE version onward. The Moto G4 Play also has a lower resolution display than its siblings, and only comes in a 16GB storage variant, whereas the Moto G4 has a 32GB variant, and the Moto G4 Plus boasts a 64GB model. These different storage options can also come with different amounts of RAM, up to 4GB. Accounting for these hardware differences can easily cause a slight delay, and unfortunately, it’s only natural that if Lenovo has to make one group consumers wait for an update, it would be the group that paid less for their phones.
The version of Nougat that’s currently running on the Moto G4 and Moto G4 Plus is based on Android 7.0 and is a mostly stock implementation of Android. The software has just a few extra apps and features from Moto and is largely similar to what’s seen on phones from the Moto X, Moto E, and even the flagship Moto Z lineup, though a bit lighter on extra features.