A new Android Oreo build for the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 leaked online recently, and it appears that this particular build is a release candidate which includes the February security patch, indicating that the Korean OEM might be preparing for the first public release of Android Oreo on the S Pen-enabled flagship. As expected, the update includes Samsung Experience 9.0 and the latest changes to the UI were recently shared in a series of screenshots by SamMobile who obtained them from one member of the XDA Developers forums. Unsurprisingly, the UI looks largely identical to the interface featured by the Samsung Galaxy S8 series post-Oreo, with the key difference between the two residing in the inclusion of S Pen-related software functionalities on the Galaxy Note 8.
Samsung has been testing Android Oreo on the Galaxy S8 series for the past couple of months. The flagships were included in the OEM’s latest beta program but the Galaxy Note 8 was not. Fortunately, because the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 are fairly similar in terms of internal hardware, the development of Android Oreo on the former series should also accelerate the update’s release on the latter model. And given that Samsung’s first public build of Android Oreo is now expected to hit the Galaxy S8 series before the end of the month, it’s likely that the Galaxy Note 8 might enjoy the Oreo treatment sooner rather than later. The leaked build at hand lends further weight to this possibility, though the update’s release will depend entirely on whether or not the software is ready for a widespread launch. Assuming that this leaked release candidate build is final, Samsung could in theory begin distributing it shortly after it launches the Oreo build for the Galaxy S8.
On the other hand, it’s worth noting that most Android Oreo builds that leaked so far for the Galaxy Note 8 were designed for the variant powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor, so it’s unclear whether the update’s development is on the same level across both models, or if Samsung has any additional work to do for the Exynos-powered variant and if it does, whether it will wait with updating the Snapdragon 835 variant so as to start distributing both simultaneously.
