It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally happening. HMD Global has announced the availability of the Nokia 8 Android Pie beta.
Announced by head of product for HMD Global, Juho Sarvikas, on Twitter. The delayed update to Android 9 for the Nokia 8 was acknowledged by Mr Sarvikas earlier this month when he said ‘Unfortunately we still have few issues to address and need a couple of more days to make it perfect’, but it appears those issues are resolved now.
Thank you for your patience. Since you had to wait a bit longer than expected for Android 9 on your Nokia 8, we decided to make an immediate Beta Labs release. Please join us in finalizing the commercial release – your feedback is extremely valuable 🍰https://t.co/siaoX5g3vj pic.twitter.com/s33qsBAgOq
— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) December 11, 2018
While the Nokia 7 Plus has gotten the lions share of attention thanks to its excellent specs and pricing, the Nokia 8 ‘Sirocco’ has quite a bit to offer. Priced at just $699, the phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of on-board storage behind a 5.5″ QHD resolution Plastic OLED display.
The delayed release of Android Pie for the Nokia 8 will soon be forgotten once it’s rolling out in full. HMD Global’s move to use Android One for their handsets technically allows for 2 years of feature updates, so we should hopefully see Android Q when it rolls out next year.
The Nokia 8 isn’t the only device that’s had the rollout of Android Pie delayed. Earlier devices like the 3, 5 and 6 are still waiting. I like what HMD are offering with Android One, but they are extremely slow to follow through on their promise of fast updates.
Apparently it is easier to port Gcam (with nightsight) to devices running Android 9 Pie, so the more devices running it the better!
This is for the Nokia 8, not the Nokia 8 Sirocco. We can’t sign up for the beta. The Sirocco update is anywhere between 1 to 1.5 months late now with not a single word from Nokia. Poor form. All it takes is one acknowledgement. It’s a bit annoying when even notorious slow updaters like Samsung, Motorola and HTC are updating to Pie yet my Nokia 8 Sirocco Android One device is being left behind. I know it’s a “first world problem ” but it’s really annoying…