Android 8.0 Oreo is here, but it’s yet another time of the year when smartphone owners are guessing the dates they’ll be receiving the new OS on their phones – or even if they’ll get the OTA updates.
Google has already released the OS to the Pixel and Nexus devices. And that’s where the story of Android 8.0 Oreo OTA updates ends so far. The search giant is expected to add to the Oreo device collection when it unveils the Pixel 2 a month from now, but for non-Google OEMs, the wait might go well into the second half of 2018.
Like any other Android OS upgrade, everyone wants to have Android 8.0 Oreo on their phones. Unfortunately, not so many people out there have the Google Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Pixel or Pixel XL. The Android market is dominated by the likes of Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Lenovo, LG, HTC, Sony and many other OEMs, including Infinix and Tecno Mobile.
These are the companies that will determine how fast Android 8.0 Oreo rolls out to the many devices in the market. It’s now over two weeks since Google made the source code files available to all Android partner OEMs. How long each one of them takes to release the OS will depend on the number of customizations the skins add to the stock version. Xiaomi, Infinix, Tecno and many other companies have quite heavy skins, which means it should take some time before devices from these OEMs receive the Oreo treat.
But what about other companies? Read on…
Samsung
Samsung is the leading company when it comes to smartphone shipments. If anything, Samsung determines how fast Android spreads around after release because of the many devices it boasts on the market. The sheer number of Samsung phones also makes it quite a massive task when it comes to working on software updates, which is why some Samsung phones are still receiving Nougat right now.
Nonetheless, not all Samsung phones will be updated to Android 8.0 Oreo. There are some that are guaranteed to get the update while others are hanging in the balance. The former consists of Samsung Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8, Galaxy S8+, Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. The new Samsung Galaxy A 2017 and Galaxy J 2017 families will also be updated to Oreo, but these could wait until next year.
As for those using the 2015 Samsung Galaxy S6 series and Galaxy Note 5, there’s no Oreo.
Huawei
According to the latest stats, Huawei has now overtaken Apple to become the second in the world in terms of smartphone shipments. This is thanks to the company’s impressive phones that carry powerful specs and affordable price tags. The tech giant has also improved a lot when it comes to software updates, something we saw when it launched a beta program for Nougat towards the end of last year. Whether the same will be repeated this year with Oreo is still unclear.
For now, all we know is that Huawei will be rolling out the update to this year’s P10 and P10 Plus, the 2016 P9 and P9 Plus, the Mate 9 family, Honor 8 series and probably the Honor 6X. Notice the upcoming Huawei Mate 10 is not on the list because we expect it to come with Oreo out of the box.
Motorola
Ever since Lenovo bought Motorola, things haven’t been the same when it comes to software updates. At some point, Moto phones received software updates ahead of the Nexus phones, something that we are seeing with the new Nokia phones. Today, Motorola has become one of the worst in terms of software updates.
The inaugural Moto Z series has already been updated to Android 7.0 Nougat and it should also get an update to Oreo, including the Moto Z Play. This year’s Moto Z2 series will also be updated and so will the mid-range Moto G4 and Moto G5 families. As for the budget Moto C and Moto E family, we can’t say anything at the moment.
LG
Last year, the LG V20 was the first phone to come pre-installed with Android 7.0 Nougat. Some thought the South Korean company would manage to repeat the same feat with Android 8.0 Oreo as far as the LG V30 is concerned, but as we already know, this wasn’t the case.
The V30 will be the first phone from LG to receive the update to Oreo, unless LG has a change of heart and releases the phone with the OS out of the box – which is very unlikely. The flagship should be accompanied by the LG V20 and LG G6, but they probably won’t get the update at the same time. LG G5 is also expected to join the party, but given how marginal the phone has become, we can’t really be sure how LG will work out on this one.
HTC
HTC is no longer the force it used to be in the smartphone industry. In fact, there are rumors that Google is in the final stages of completing a deal to possibly buy the Taiwanese company, which makes sense given that the Pixel and Pixel XL were made by the company. It has also been claimed the smaller Pixel 2 will be made by HTC.
That aside, the company is expected to update the entire HTC U series to Android 8.0 Oreo, including the budget HTC U Play. However, it’s obvious this upgrade could kick off with the HTC U11. Last year’s HTC 10 and HTC 10 Evo should also be updated to Oreo, but these could wait until early next year.
Sony
Sony has confirmed that it will be releasing Android 8.0 Oreo to a series of phones that include the entire 2017 list of Xperia XZ Premium, Xperia XZs, Xperia XA1 series as well as the Xperia X, Xperia X Compact and Xperia X Performance. The 2015 family sits out this time around, but the Xperia Touch is in contention to receive Oreo.
OnePlus
OnePlus doesn’t have such a huge list of phones that it’ll be upgrading to Android Oreo. Only three will be upgraded – the 3 and 3T alongside the new OnePlus 5. The company says all three should get the update before this year ends.
Nokia
Like OnePlus, Nokia also doesn’t have so many phones to work on. There’s only the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6, all of which will receive Oreo. Since the upcoming Nokia 8 has Nougat out of the box, we expect it to join the other three – or even perhaps be the first to receive the Oreo update.
Note: This list will be updated regularly with more devices when and if their details are available.
