Google is working to make Android perform even better on low-end hardware, thus the creation of Android Go. Now, Nokia is taking advantage of that program to bring Google’s latest and greatest, Android 8.1, to the $99 Nokia 2.
While Nokia can’t actually upgrade the Nokia 2 to Android Go as a whole, the company is planning to use those enhancements to bring an upgrade to one of its most affordable smartphones.
The Nokia 2 launched with a near stock version of Android 7.1.1 Nougat, Snapdragon 212, 8GB of storage, and a measly single GB of RAM. Confirmed by HMD Global’s Chief Product Officer, Juho Sarvikas, the Nokia 2 will get an update to 8.1 and performance should be better than it is on the current Nougat build.
Hi! It will receive Android Oreo. 1GB RAM devices will be supported on 8.1 release where many of the Android Go memory management improvements will be integrated. Nokia 2 performance will only get better over time!
— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) December 28, 2017
It’s really encouraging to see the time and effort being put in to bring not only this update in general, but also these enhancements to such an inexpensive smartphone. Hopefully, we’ll see more from Nokia in the budget space, perhaps next time with a proper Android Go release
