Onyx has finally released the promised upgrade from Android 6 to Android 9 for the 10.3-inch Note Pro and 7.8-inch Nova Pro, but it might be more trouble than it’s worth for most people.
Onyx has been saying they would upgrade the Note Pro and Nova Pro for literally a year and a half now (they’ve released three new Note and Nova models each in the meantime). Most people gave up on the update a long time ago, but kudos to Onyx for living up to their promise after all even if it did take 18 months.
However, the upgrade process is rather convoluted and it comes with some risks of bricking your device.
Here’s what it says on the upgrade page:
After testing Android upgrade for Note Pro and Nova Pro for a long time, we’ve finally made the breakthrough and brought the Android 9.0 for these two models. Although we’ve fixed a lot of bugs for the flashing packages and determined to offer a secure solution, it’s still a high risk to upgrade an Android 6.0 device to a much higher version.
They go on to say if you are satisfied with the V3.0 firmware on your Note Pro or Nova Pro with Android 6 you shouldn’t risk upgrading to Android 9. They also mention that you can send your device in for repair if it gets borked during the update process, but you will have to cover shipping costs.
Given the fact there are very few benefits to upgrading, most people are probably better off just sticking with Android 6 unless an app incompatibility issue comes up, but if you really want Android 9 you have the choice to upgrade if you want.
Here’s the link to the page with the directions on how to upgrade the Nova Pro and Note Pro to Android 9. Make sure to read the directions closely, and you might want to follow this discussion over at MobileRead with other people’s experience on the upgrade process.
Upgraded my Nova Pro over the weekend and as long as you follow the instructions you’ll be fine. I’ve been installing custom ROM’s and everything that comes with it for quite a few years but even if you’ve never done it before you’ll be fine. The most important thing is to have a good quality USB cable.
I’ve noticed the device with the android 9 is snappier and the Kindle app works better.
“You’ll be fine” ?! “The most important thing” ?!
Why is the update open source and you have a genius level crack team of developers auditing the code for security flaws and backdoors like the OpenBSD team ? Don’t make me laugh. But it comes from a Chinese company ! Yeah, keep smoking that crack cocaine.
I have no clue why people trust companies such as Onyx blindly.
And your problem with the upgrade process is… what exactly?
If you are serious about only wanting open source software on your devices, more power to you, but it’s possible to state that more clearly. Otherwise, the slight towards Onyx seems a bit out of place, absent further discussion or evidence. Sure, there’s a lot to criticise in China’s autocratic, surveillance-heavy capitalist system. But as far as secret services and spying are concerned, why should I trust US systems anymore (or other “Western” ones, although the US services probably have the largest machinery at their disposal)?
As I rarely use my Nova Pro anymore, and I like to play with my devices, I performed this update.. I carefully followed the instructions and it worked flawlessly the first time. One thing to bare in mind is that if you do this update, you are starting over. Just as if you did a factory reset. You have to re-enable the play store, redownload all your apps and reload all of your content to the device. I
I flashed my Note Pro to Android 9 with 3.0 firmware when it was still in the Closed Beta phase (Nov 2020) – guess I should flash it again now but since I do not experience any serious issues, I think I’ll wait until firmware 3.1 is released (for Note Pro with Android 9). I’m more lazy to set it up again and reload everything again than I’m afraid of bricking the device.
May I ask anyone who performed the update recently, what is your firmware version after the update? I am curious whether the current image is actually already 3rd attempt (Closed Beta, Open Beta, Not A Beta). Mine is 2020-11-20_11-30_3.0_b320658.
I did it today on my nova pro, the firmware is from november (2020-11-20_14-52_3.0_b320658).
I tested the 3.1 update on Android 6 before and I was not very happy with it (my Nova was slow and the new V2 engine looks promising but too buggy to be usable). So I guess I will stay on 3.0 Android 9 at last until a new update 3.2 comes
This is interesting, thank you. I was almost sure that they made some changes to the image during recent months and released some initial version in November, something a bit more polished in January
https://www.reddit.com/r/Onyx_Boox/comments/kwd58d/open_beta_testing_for_android_90_flash_available/
and something “final’ recently.
In case it is not so (maybe they updated only the updater?) I’ll definitely wait and be happy that the device works :).
hmm – i was not following any of the forums and i do not have facebook. last night i was prompted once again to update firmware and this time read the release notes/changelog – it said “note pro android 9” and “note pro android 6” for firmware version 3.1
so, obviously was interested and searched for an update and found couple of posts.
after following instructions on the google docs – updated my note pro to android 9.
had not finished setup – got prompted to upgrade to firmware 3.1
updated without a hitch.