Android 8.0 Oreo could soon be coming to a Samsung Galaxy S8 near you

Source: trusted reviews.com By
Roland Moore-Colyer

Android 8.0 Oreo may soon be on its way to the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+, as test firmware for Samsung smartphones has popped up. 

Oreo firmware updates spotted by SamMobile contain the latter ‘Z’ in their version names, which has previously been used to denote that the firmware is for Samsung phones, as last year’s Android 7.0 Nougat updates for the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge also contained the same letter in the firmware.

As such, Android Oreo firmware versions labelled G950FXXE1ZQI7 and G955FXXU1ZQI7 are expected for the Galaxy S8 and its larger sibling respectively.

A beta version of the Samsung-flavoured Oreo firmware is expected to be rolled out very soon, but neither Samsung or Google have revealed when exactly the mobile operating system will find its way onto Samsung handsets, or indeed which of the South Korean company’s range of smartphones and tablets will get the Oreo treatment.

However, Samsung is likely to push Oreo out to both of the Galaxy S8s and its Galaxy Note 8, give the phones are at the top of its smartphone pile; last-generation handsets like the Galaxy S7 will probably get Android 8.0 pushed out to them, but there’s a chance that older phones like the Galaxy S6 might be left to tick along with Android Nougat.

Google has given Oreo a thorough nip and tuck to make it easier for smartphone makers to upgrade to when they are using their own custom user interfaces on top of Android. But Samsung’s TouchWiz UI has its digital claws particularly deep in Android, adding all manner of custom elements, which can in turn make it tricky to upgrade the core OS without causing other apps and custom features to malfunction or simply look a little strange.

Android Oreo brings in a more robust security centre, meaning Android fans with concerns about hackers and privacy will want to upgrade to Oreo as soon as possible, so we can imagine that if Samsung takes much longer in pushing out its Oreo update users of its flagship phones could get a little disgruntled.