The Nokia Lumia 520, a mid-range Windows Phone 8 device launched back in 2014, has been recently spotted running Android 7.1 Nougat.
The phone, now essentially forgotten, was the most popular Windows Phone 8 handset during its heyday. It received the Windows Phone 8.1 update, but never Windows 10, so it's odd to see the phone now running Android's latest operating system.
Android 7.1 Nougat On Nokia Lumia 520?
Although the phone seems perfectly capable of running the software, it's far from something users would actually want to experience. While some standard features such as multi-touch and battery charging operate snag-free, the software is still very unstable. Regardless, it's quite impressive to see an old Lumia phone running a modern piece of software, and the whole thing is the crafty handiwork of XDA dev thinhx2, who managed to boot CyanogenMod 14.1 on the phone.
This is not the first time that the a Lumia phone was able to run a software exceeding its capacity. In August, the moderately spec'd Lumia 525 was also spotted running Android Marshmallow, albeit missing a couple of features such as accurate touch input and Wi-Fi, among others.
Multi-Window View
For a bit of perspective, the phone has a dual-core 1 GHz processor and 512 MHz of RAM, and yet it was able to run multi-window view, a taxing Nougat-specific feature that splits two apps in one screen. What's more, the Lumia 520 managed to achieve such a feat even with its small 4-inch display.
It remains to be seen whether the developer pushes it out for others to test, although the idea seems kaput, at least for now, seeing that the ROM version is unstable.
How About Other Lumia Phones?
If an underpowered phone such as the Lumia 520 can run Android 7.1 Nougat, then it's well within the realm of possibility that the same thing can be done for the Lumia 950 or the Lumia 1020, which are far more powerful successors to the beloved Window Phone 8 device.
Upcoming Nokia Android Phones
But there's actually no need to waste effort on forcing a Nokia phone to run Android, since Nokia is slated to do the exact same thing itself. Nokia has been progressively gearing up for a smartphone re-entry, and the first offspring to herald its return is rumored to be the Nokia D1C, a mid-range Android offering powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, with reportedly 3 GB of RAM for the $200 variant, and 2 GB of RAM for the $150 variant.
What do you think of the Lumia 520 being able to run the most recent version of Nougat? Are you excited for Nokia's forthcoming Android handsets? Feel free to sound off in the comments section below!
