Tag: Android Oreo

HMD Global, the company that owns the rights to the Nokia name, has confirmed that all of their current devices will be getting updated to Android P when it is available in 2018.  It is a bold statement given that the company is just now starting to roll out Android Oreo to the Nokia 8, their flagship.

The announcement came during the Nokia 8 launch event held in the Philippines yesterday and it was made clear it would be not just for the 8, but for the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 too.

Google has released this month’s Android Distribution Report and the latest version of the platform has finally made its debut.  Android Oreo accounted for .2% of the traffic to the Google Play Store for the seven day period ending October 2, 2017.  It was only one of two versions of Android that gained in the distribution report, joined by Android Nougat.

Nougat saw a 2% jump over the September report, accounting for 17.8% of the traffic to the Play Store.  All of the others either had no change or saw drops in usage.

Today’s deal is on the compact, 4.6″ display Sony Xperia X Compact.  The 2016 phone packs a lot of punch and is down to $349 today on Amazon.  This is just about half of the cost of the new-for-2017 Xperia XZ Compact and you will still be getting Android Oreo at some point in early 2018.

I reviewed the Xperia X Compact in November of last year and it remains one of my favorite phones of the past year.  It’s compact size is great but the overall performance and camera quality is excellent.

The Xperia X Compact is powered by the Snapdragon 650 hexa-core processor.  It has four 1.4 GHz Cortex-A53 cores &  two 1.8 GHz Cortex-A72 cores.  The processor is coupled with the Adreno 510 GPU which provides good graphics performance.  The X Compact has 3GB of RAM onboard and has 32GB of built-in storage.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the Micro SD slot that is built into the SIM tray of the phone.  With the smaller screen size, as you would expect, the X Compact is a pretty small device.  It measures 129 x 65 x 9.5 mm or 5.08 x 2.56 x 0.37″ in old money.  Weight wise it is 136g or 4.76 ounces.  The phone is comfortable to hold and very easy to slip into any pocket.

Nokia has been clear that all of their current line up of devices, the Nokia 3, 5, 6 and 8, would be receiving an update to Android Oreo.  The question, as is always the case with manufactures, was when that would happen.  Now we know and it is this year.

In an interview today, HMD Global’s General Manager for ANZ (Australia and New Zealand), Mark Trundle confirmed that the Nokia 3, 5 and 6 will get getting the Oreo update before the end of the year.  As for the Nokia 8, the Android Oreo update is already in a limited rollout.

After being launched last month at IFA in Berlin, the new Sony Xperia XZ1 is now available for purchase here in the US.  The 5.2″ phone is available in four colors and is $699 through Sony’s Amazon storefront.

The Xperia XZ1 is powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC, has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on board.  That storage can be expanded up to an additional 256GB thanks to the MicroSD slot.  The XZ1 has a 19MP main camera and 13MP selfie camera, is IP68 rated for water and dust resistance and has a HDR 1080p IPS display.

Along with the Google Pixel 2 XL, we now know what the smaller HTC-built Pixel 2 will look like, its color options and pricing structure.  Like the XL, it is expected that this phone will be launched at the Google event on October 4th.

The Pixel 2 will come in three colors:  Kinda Blue, Just Black and Clearly White.  The first color is very similar to the Ice Blue that was on the Nexus 5X (at least from the renders it appears to be so) while the Just Black and Clearly White are similar to the color options on the Pixel today.