Updates have always been Android’s Achilles heel, but for several years we have seen how manufacturers are pushing to offer up to seven years of updates on your mobiles. It is good news for users and regulators. The problem is that AI threatens to introduce a new form of fragmentation: having an updated mobile phone no longer guarantees access to the most important functions, even if it is high-end.
What has happened? A few days ago, during the Android Show, Google announced the new star feature coming to Android: Gemini Intelligence. We are no longer talking about specific functions, but rather about a layer of AI that covers everything, making the mobile phone act autonomously within the system and the apps. It sounds great, what doesn’t sound so good is the list of requirements.
Hardware requirements. Google has detailed the minimum requirements for a mobile phone to run Gemini Intelligence and it is quite not encouraging. We are talking about devices with 12 GB of RAM and that mount recent “flagship” processors. These requirements directly leave out the majority of the current vehicle fleet, but also at the current time with the memory crisis raising pricesthe high-end is going to become even more unattainable.
The real problem. If the RAM and the processor already leave out many mobile phones, the software requirements are even worse. This is where Google makes the real difference since, to run Gemini Intelligence, compatibility with Gemini Nano V3, the local language model for mobile phones, is necessary. If we look at the current compatibility list, it is no longer that it affects cheap phones, it is that it also leaves out phones like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 which was launched in the summer of 2025 and cost 2,109 euros, or the Xiaomi 17 Ultra which has just been launched for almost 1,500 euros.
It is not clear that the list is definitive, since it is possible that there are changes because they allow it to be updated later, but for now the outlook is bleak:
The list of devices compatible with Gemini Nano v2 and Gemini Nano v3. Image: Xatakamovil
There is still more. The software requirements don’t end here. Google has also put several additional conditions for a device to have Gemini Intelligence. The device must receive at least five years of operating system updates and six years of security patches, in addition to meeting a series of quality requirements regarding stability, failure rate and multimedia, among others.
The privilege of AI. “The best of Gemini in our most advanced devices” is the phrase we find in the Gemini Intelligence official websiteso Google already warns us from the beginning. That updates or more advanced functions reach the most expensive phones is something we are used to, but with AI we are seeing the bar rise even higher. Furthermore, it is not a specific function as it was ARCorewe are talking about the central axis of the proposal, a new way of interacting with the mobile that only a small percentage of users will be able to test, including those who have a Google Pixel.
Cover image | Google
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