Google has been releasing betas for the next-generation Android11 to its Pixel phones this whole month. But it hasn’t gone official yet. Vivo seems to be ahead of the curve with its new Vivo V20. FunTouchOS 11 is built on top of Android11, and it’ll debut with the V20 series, confirms Vivo in a press release. In other words, Vivo — and not Google — will be first to market with the new Android.
Featuring the V20, Vivo V20 Pro, and V20 SE, the V20 series only has the standard edition running on Android11 out of the box. The SE and Pro models are scheduled for an OS upgrade soon.
The V20 display is an AMOLED 6.44” FHD+ screen that reaches a 91.2% screen-to-body ratio but no exceptional touch response or fluid refresh rates to be seen here.
Vivo promises two years of guaranteed system updates — suggesting that the Vivo V20 will be upgradable to Android12 through Android13. It’s refreshing to see phone manufacturers jumping on upgrades ahead of Google, given how unpredictable most brands are with software updates.
Other than Vivo’s official announcement, folks over at XDA Developers also found the model number V2025 (which has been confirmed to belong to the V20) buried in Google Play Console listings. In the device catalog, the phone’s SDK version is specified to be ‘30’. It’s the only phone on the platform to feature this version of Android.
The Indonesian YouTube channel GadgetIn recently posted an unboxing of the upcoming Vivo V20 phone and revealed it was running on Android11. HMD Global introduced the Nokia 2.4 and Nokia 3.4 at a virtual event and announced that the two models are ‘Android11-ready’ as well.