HMD Global has been on a roll lately. The official Oreo update came to the Nokia 7 and both variants of the Nokia 6. The Nokia 8 went a step ahead even started beta testing Oreo 8.1. The company is still firing on all cylinders and hasn't forgotten its older or lower range devices. Both the Nokia 5 and the Nokia 6 are starting to get the official Oreo 8.0 update now. The product manager of HMD Global Tweeted:
Sweeter and Smoother. The #Nokia5 and #Nokia6 are officially joining the #AndroidOreo family. pic.twitter.com/7bbW3j7SOF
— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) January 30, 2018
Since both devices run Stock Android, the feature-set will include all the standard Oreo goodies such as picture-in-picture, app autofill and notifications dots in the launcher and the January security patch. The update is being rolled out incrementally and should hit your device in the next few days
Unlocked Huawei Mate 9 for US Receiving Oreo
Despite it's falling out in the US market, Huawei is committed to pushing Android Oreo to all eligible devices. The latest addition to the list is the unlocked carrier variant of the Huawei Mate 9 (with model numbers MHA-L29 and L09). No word about an official changelog for this particular model yet, but we can give you an idea of what’s new because other models of the Mate 9 apparently received the Oreo update a little while ago.
The update included EMUI 8.0 (Huawei’s custom Android fork), several AI features inside of the camera app, a Dynamic Wallpaper feature, the ability to take 3D panoramas and a lot more, which you can read about here. You can also expect the typical Oreo changes, such as improved notifications, an improved settings menu et al.
Essential ditches Android 8.0 Oreo upgrade for PH-1, will skip to 8.1
The Essential phone's success can be termed as lukewarm, at best. While the device looked good on paper, with top-of-the-line hardware, it failed to make an impression with customers due to its exorbitant price tag. Several price cuts later, the device still failed to pique people's interest as it was found to have several bugs, especially in the camera app.
Android 8.0 Oreo beta on the Essential Phone first became available around the same time as 8.1 started hitting Pixel and Nexus devices, but the company was quick to confirm that it would be launching that update after 8.0 was finalized. Now, though, the company is going back on that decision a bit, which is confirmed by a Tweet posted by Essential:
An update on the public release of Oreo: pic.twitter.com/fPJRtX7kvY
— Essential (@essential) January 30, 2018
Little more is known about the reasoning behind the direct jump to Oreo 8.1, other than 'stability issues' in 8.0. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, though, as the users can get the latest version of the Android Operating system without having to wait an extended period of time.
