The Nokia 8 could have the honor of being the first device to ship with Google’s as-yet-unreleased Android 8.0 OS. A handset called Unknown Heart was spotted on Geekbench running the software recently.
Geekbench has a tendency to call Nokia phones Unknown Heart for some reason and there’s a strong chance the smartphone in question is the Nokia 8. It runs on a Snapdragon 835 processor and packs 4GB of RAM, specs which have been attributed to the device in the past.
HMD Global is planning to show off the Nokia 8 on August 16. This neatly coincides with Android O’s alleged timeline. Android Police’s David Ruddock took to Twitter recently to say that Google will probably release version 8.0 of its software next week.
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If this holds true, Google might beam out Android O for its Pixel and Nexus devices before August 16 rolls around. This will allow HMD Global to officially announce that the Nokia 8 will be the first to ship with the software. The phone’s actual release will likely happen at a later date a few weeks later, plenty of time to get things ready on the software front.
Google had followed a similar strategy last year, announcing that the LG V20 would be the first to run on Android Nougat after rolling out the OS to its own products. The alignment makes sense for HMD Global too, since having the Nokia 8 run on Android 8 would be a solid marketing strategy.
Of course, it’s possible that Nokia is just testing Android 8.0 in preparation for the update. HMD Global had previously promised that the handset would be upgraded to Android O, so buyers will have access to the software in either scenario.