Report: Sony phones crash least often, Nexus phones are updated fastest

By Christian de Looper Published August 15, 2016

Wouldn’t it be great if we could know which Android manufacturers have the best track record when it comes to things like crashes, update speed, and so on?

A new report was just released by Apteligent, which compares device makers in a number of different ways, and then pools that data to find the best Android manufacturer out there.

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According to the report, rather unsurprisingly, Motorola is the fastest Android manufacturer to push out updated to Android. However, under Lenovo’s guidance, it seems as though that my be slipping and could soon change. Most recently, Samsung has been pushing updates faster and faster, and actually overtook Motorola at the end of June, at least in the United States. In India, Motorola far and away updates its phones first. Those rankings do exclude Nexus devices, which are obviously updated faster than any other device.

Surprisingly enough, Sony devices have the lowest crash rate, with Motorola devices coming in second — in other words, devices from both companies should run fairly smoothly.

The report also looked at device fragmentation in different countries, finding that Russia had the highest device fragmentation in the world. What that means is that there are a whopping 230 devices used by 90 percent of the Russian Android user population, with the most used device surprisingly enough being the Asus Zenfone 2. Ukraine comes second in device fragmentation, the Czech Republic third, and China fourth.

So which phone should you get? According to Apteligent’s recommendations, the upcoming Nexus devices should provide the best user experience, but otherwise Motorola phones represent a great alternative. The report also concluded by saying that Google is trying to mitigate things like Android fragmentation in part by pushing apps and services to the Google Play store rather than bundling them with Android.

You can read the full report for yourself here.

Christian de Looper

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Christian de Looper is a long-time freelance writer who has covered every facet of the consumer tech and electric vehicle…

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Android 16 brings a blind fingerprint unlock perk to Pixel phones

Enabling off screen fingerprint unlock feature in Android 16.

Google is currently moving full steam ahead with the development of Android 16. Following the release of a third beta update just over a week ago, Android 16 has reached the platform stability milestone. Though the latest test build is light on feature updates, it brings a cool new trick.
On Pixel smartphones, users can now unlock their phone even if the screen is completely dark. First spotted by the folks over at Android Authority, the new “Screen-off Fingerprint Unlock” feature has been integrated within the phone’s Security & Privacy dashboard.
So far, Pixel smartphone users had to wake up the screen and put their thumb atop the fingerprint sensor icon on the Lock Screen. This had to be done either by waking up the screen with a tap gesture, or by pressing the power button.
Thanks to the new screen-off unlock convenience, users can simply place their thumb atop the in-display fingerprint sensor and get past the Lock Screen. There is no longer an intermittent hassle of lighting up the screen.

I was able to enable this feature after installing the Android 16 Beta 3.1 build, which runs atop the March 2025 security update, on a Pixel 8 smartphone. The new feature is a thoughtful convenience and works flawlessly.
It does, however, take a bit of muscle memory to land the thumb right above the fingerprint sensor on an otherwise dark screen. Also worth noting here is the fact that Google won’t be the first smartphone maker to offer this convenience.
I tried unlocking my OnePlus 13 and Samsung Galaxy S25 without waking up the screen, and it works just fine. Both devices are currently running Android 15, and notably, offer a faster fingerprint unlock experience compared to the Pixel 8, irrespective of whether the screen is on or off.
I’d like to point out that the screen-off fingerprint unlock system has arrived with a beta build, and Google might remove — or delay it — when the stable Android 16 update starts rolling out widely in the coming months.
For now, your only option to experience it is by enrolling in the Android 16 beta-testing program on a compatible Google Pixel smartphone. I would, however, recommend waiting out a few more weeks for the stable update to land on your Pixel smartphone, and save yourself the buggy mess of test builds.

Mobile

Getting a Google Play services error? You’re not the only one

Rose Quartz Pixel 9 Pro on a peppermint background.

If you've received an alert from Google Play Services to install an update but you can't find, don't worry: you aren't alone. The error message warns that certain official Google apps won't work unless you update through the Play Store, but no update is available. The problem seems to be affecting a wide number of people, many of whom took to social media to find an answer to the problem.

Tipster CID (@theonecid) reports this same error, and it has been confirmed from several other outlets. The source of the bug isn't clear, but it seems to affect users on both the stable and beta releases of Play Services.

Mobile

Android 16’s latest beta adds an iPhone-like Battery Health tool

Android 16 battery health dashboard.

Google has started the rollout of Android 16’s third beta build. It’s not a massive aesthetic makeover, but there are a few features that users will appreciate. Among them is the addition of a health check system for the phone’s battery.
The new feature, called Battery Health, can be accessed by opening the Battery dashboard in the Settings app. There isn’t a heap of functional stuff here, aside from an information deck that essentially tells you about the electrochemical status of your phone’s battery.

Why this is important?
A typical lithium-ion battery fitted inside smartphones undergoes repeated charge-discharge cycles, almost on a daily basis. Over time, chemical degradation happens, which affects how long the battery can retain charge. Technically speaking, rechargeable batteries are consumables and they have a limited lifespan.
A lot of factors are involved here, such as impedance and battery voltage, both of which are affected by the chemical age of a battery. Based on the battery’s health, smartphones perform certain optimizations to manage the device workload, prevent shutdowns, and manage scenarios such as lags.