If you"ve been keeping track, you"ll know that HMD Global has been one of the better examples of how Android updates should be handled. The firm has rolled out Android Pie to a number of its smartphones since Google officially released the OS to the public, including the almost two-year-old Nokia 5.
However, there"s a very notable exception to the company"s efforts in getting its phones on the latest version of Android. The original Nokia 2, launched towards the end of 2017, is still stuck on Android Nougat, despite the fact that HMD promised Android 8.1 Oreo over a year ago. The Nokia 2 is also nowhere mentioned in the company"s roadmap for the Pie rollout.
In January, Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas explained in a Twitter thread that the Nokia 2 wasn"t in the right conditions to be upgraded to Oreo as you would expect. The phone was launched with Android Nougat, and Google introduced the Android Go program with Oreo, creating a specialized, lighter version of the OS for devices with lower specs.
The Nokia 2 only has 1GB of RAM, which means that, as of Oreo, it should be part of Android Go. However, it"s not possible to move the device to that variant of the OS, so it would have to be updated to the full version of Oreo, which has a noticeable impact on performance. As such, the company has opted to offer Android Oreo as an optional update for those who prefer sacrificing some smoothness for an improved feature set and design.
Today, the company sent e-mails to those who have been testing Oreo on the Nokia 2, informing them that the beta period is now over and that the update will be enabled for them soon. Other users will also be able to sign up to get Oreo on the Nokia 2.
Obviously, this likely means that the phone will forever be stuck in either Nougat or Oreo, and that it will be the first of HMD"s devices not to receive an update to Pie. An undesired blemish in the company"s track record, for sure, but at least there"s a clear explanation for the situation.
Source: Nokiapoweruser