As far as HMD Global’s publicly-available plans for its Android 10 rollout, only 3 smartphones are guaranteed an upgrade before the year ends and the rest are relegated to various months in 2020.
However, for users of at least 3 of the devices that are earmarked for an update early next year, the wait to try out Android 10 on their smartphones may have been cut by at least 2 months.
In order for that update roadmap to be realized, it means that HMD Global is currently hard at work testing Android 10 on all the devices that will be getting it over the next few months. This, in effect, means that should the software currently under testing somehow make it beyond HMD Global’s laboratories and into the wild, anything is possible.
Well, that appears to be the case right now as any users of the Nokia 6.1, Nokia 6.1 Plus and the Nokia 7 Plus, with the right tinkering know-how, are able to flash Android 10 beta on their devices. The same applies to any users of the Nokia 7.1 which is set to get the update later this quarter alongside the flagship Nokia 9 PureView.
As is always the case with such news, there is a catch. For any device to be able to run the leaked Android 10 beta builds that are making rounds on the interwebs, its bootloader needs to be unlocked.
Now, if that is something you don’t understand then worry not, you just need to sit pretty and HMD Global will seed the update at the right time (we’ll be at hand to remind you). However, if that is the kind of language that gets your hairs up then you just need to do the needful (see below) and you’re good to go. This is important especially since we don’t know if HMD Global will be opening up the beta for the Nokia 6.1, Nokia 6.1 Plus, Nokia 7 Plus or any other Nokia smartphone, for that matter, to the public.
HMD Global had for months allowed users of the Nokia 8.1 that is currently receiving its Android 10 update to give the software a spin before the final stable release but things may have since changed.
Android device makers are not known for providing test builds of devices that are not part of their flagship lineups, publicly. While some do, it is the exception rather than the norm. That may also be case with HMD Global.
Here are links to the builds and guides as listed on XDA Developers:
Of course, we don’t need to reiterate that flashing any of the aforementioned test software builds takes one from the known to the unknown – instability and bugs – do we?
