HMD Global officially launched the preview program for Android 8.0 Oreo on the Nokia 8, its first flagship which the company introduced this summer. The open beta is available to all owners of the Nokia 8 and only requires them to fill out a short form that can be accessed below. The handset itself will have to be authenticated by its IMEI number, after which the firm will provide you with a beta build of Android 8.0 Oreo in the form of a traditional over-the-air (OTA) download. HMD says that it may take up to 12 hours for the build to be distributed following authentication, though some users on Twitter claim they received the software in a matter of minutes after signing up. Owners of the Nokia 8 who install the Oreo beta but want to go back to Android 7.1.1 Nougat for any reason can do so at any point during the test, the company confirmed. If you don’t already have an account with HMD, you can simply log into the program using your Facebook profile or Google credentials.
Being an experimental version of Android 8.0 Oreo, this particular firmware build may still prove to be unstable to a degree, feature some noticeable bugs, or generally not perform as smoothly as Android 7.1.1 Nougat does on the same device. Still, no major complaints regarding the reliability of the public beta software have been observed on social media or HMD’s product forums as of this writing. As is usually the case with Android beta builds, the one that brings Oreo to the Nokia 8 comes with a pre-installed app for sending feedback to HMD or access the official Nokia forums to discuss the software with other users.
HMD Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas took to Twitter earlier today to officially confirm the launch of the Android 8.0 Oreo public beta test for the Nokia 8, adding that the Nokia 3, Nokia 5, and Nokia 6 will all be treated to a similar preview program shortly but without providing a more specific time frame for the availability of subsequent initiatives. The newly launched Nokia 7 hasn’t been particularly mentioned by Mr. Sarvikas but the Finnish phone maker previously confirmed that all of its 2017 devices will be upgraded to Android 8.0 Oreo and the omission of the Nokia 7 from the tweet that is seen below can likely be explained by the fact that the latest handset from the company is presently only available in China and has yet to be officially introduced in other countries.
Nokia Android 8.0 Oreo Beta#Nokia3 , #Nokia5 and #Nokia6 will follow in pursuit! We are just starting with #Nokia8 now @nokiamobile#nokiamobilebetalabs . #staytuned
— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) October 25, 2017