Nokia 3.1, 5.1 Android 10 update opens the door for Android 11 cycle

By Ewdison Then/Oct. 7, 2020 9:24 pm EST

HMD Global has been promising timely Android updates unlike its bigger competitors and, to be fair, it has tried to do its best given the circumstances. That said, even with its adjusted Android 10 roadmap due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was still terribly late to rolling out those updates. But now that the last Nokia holdovers are finally getting their promised Android 10 updates, HMD Global might finally be able to focus on Android 11, not to mention release its already leaked roadmap.

HMD Global was proud to point out last year that it was the fastest to move from N to O to P but that streak may have been broken in Q, a.k.a. Android 10. It wasn't completely its fault, of course, and had to delay some of the updates due to the coronavirus. That said, it did promise that the last batch of Nokia phones will get the update in the second quarter of 2020, not the last.

Better late than never, of course, and the Nokia 3.1 is finally getting Android 10. Company Chief Product Officer Juho Sarvikas also followed up that the Nokia 5.1 would be getting the same update in just a while. These two are the last phones promised to get the Android 10 update, with the Nokia 1 curiously getting it back in July.

The #Android10 roll out for #Nokia3dot1 is here! Access all of the new features and upgrade your phone experience. Head over to our Community Forum for more details and availability by country: https://t.co/nQmhVAChmj @NokiaMobile pic.twitter.com/mF7LJrH4bq

— Juho Sarvikas (@sarvikas) October 7, 2020

That hopefully means that the Android 11 upgrade cycle can now start. A briefly posted schedule of that update suggested that the rollout will begin sometimes this quarter, starting with the Nokia 8.3 5G, Nokia 5.3, Nokia 2.2, and Nokia 8.1. That timetable might be a bit optimistic considering Nokia Mobile quickly pulled out the tweet.

Given it took HMD Global quite a while to actually finish the rollout of last year's Android 10, there's probably little assurances it will be able to do better this time around. The advantages of being a smaller and more agile company as well as using pretty much stock Android (or at least Android One), seems to be lost on Nokia phones for some reason, which, in turn, also makes them just like any other Android mid-range smartphone rather than a shining example of how Android phones should be.