Nokia X60 Rumored To Run Huawei HarmonyOS Instead Of Android

HMD Global has made great strides in reviving the Nokia brand in the Android world. Whether it's successful or not is still debatable but, so far, it has definitely played the part of a good Android maker, especially when it comes to its commitment to Android updates. Now there are whispers that its honeymoon phase with Android might be over and is courting another partner, one that would see an upcoming Nokia X60 and X60 Pro run Huawei's shiny new HarmonyOS instead.

It's really not that easy to qualify what HarmonyOS really is beyond being Huawei's multi-platform OS. The company might vehemently deny the association and define what HarmonyOS is in buzzword-filled marketing language, but, at least based on some developers' analyses, its phone version still has many hooks into Android. Calling it an Android fork probably comes the closest, which means it is both Android yet also not Android.

That is what makes this new rumor rather surprising if true. According to IThome, HMD Global has decided to put this very same HarmonyOS on one of its upcoming phones, called the Nokia X60 and Nokia X60 Pro. HMD Global does have experience with other mobile platforms, like the Symbian-based S60 on its Nokia feature phones, but this rumor comes rather out of the blue even for the company.

One potential reason for this sudden change is that HMD may want to target Chinese markets specifically with these two phones. The fact that HarmonyOS has no access to Google Play services and apps is not a big deal in China since those have not been available there anyway. In global markets, it's a deal-breaker, as Huawei can attest to.

As for the Nokia X60 itself, there is still some uncertainty regarding its specs but features like a 200MP camera, 6,000 mAh battery, and curved edge screens have been mentioned. Those are features that definitely sound almost too good to be true, which only makes this rumored HarmonyOS Nokia phone sound even more fantastical.