While it is struggling as a company, Cyanogen Inc. is effectively leading a community of developers in providing constant and timely stream of CyanogenMod updates. Take the case of the CyanogenMod 14.1 nightlies. They are already based on Android 7.1 Nougat and they just expanded support for a second batch of Android devices.
CM 14.1 Supported Devices
Development of CyanogenMod 14.1 was announced last August, and several days ago the first set of official nightly builds has been unleashed. They initially supported the Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Xiaomi Mi3, LG G3 and G4, Samsung Galaxy S5 and ZenFone 2.
Now that list has grown further to include the Asus ZenPad 8.0, LG G3, LG G Pad, Nexus 5, Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony Xperia M.
Updates For Older Handsets
According to Cyanogen, the nightly build for the Nexus 4 should be coming soon as well. Now this is particularly interesting for the rest of the techies out there. Major OEM manufacturers are notorious for abandoning old devices, refusing to develop updates for smartphones that are several years old.
Samsung was even dragged to court by the Dutch Consumers' Association for its failure to update its older models. The organization revealed that 82 percent of the company's phones available in the Dutch market have not seen any firmware rollout in two years. Certainly, this is the reason why CyanogenMod still persists to this day.
CyanogenMod 14.1 Features
Owners of the supported devices should expect to find key changes once CM 14.1 has been installed. However, there are still some missing features. So far, the developers were not able to provide the complete list but the CyanogenMod Theme Engine is certainly one of them.
As is customary, early adopters are encouraged to report bugs and feedbacks to improve the build further. The developers said that missing features should not be treated as a bug as they will eventually be introduced in upcoming builds.
Customizing Android
For the uninitiated, using CyanogenMod or any custom ROM available will unlock new and powerful features in your Android devices. For example, it can completely change the visual style of the user interface or it could institute performance enhancements such as overclocking.
Users who are concerned about stability and security could always turn to the official releases of CyanogenMod as these are considered on par if not better than those developed by Android OEMs such as Samsung's Touch Wiz or HTC's Sense UI.
Unlike an iPhone, rooting Android devices will not void its warranty. There are manufacturers that stipulate otherwise but there are those who even provide official means of unlocking a handset's bootloader.
