Newsletter
Essential Products has launched the first Android Oreo beta build for its sole flagship phone, the Essential PH-1. The OEM has made the Oreo beta file images available for download on its official website allowing customers to apply the software manually. Evidently, this is a pre-release build and as such the company reminds users that it may contain bugs, while also encouraging Essential PH-1 owners to provide feedback regarding the Oreo beta build at hand. Finally, it should be noted that although downloading and installing the Android Oreo beta build on the Essential PH-1 will not void the Essential Limited Warranty with the OEM, it may affect the terms and conditions set in place by carriers and other third parties, in situations where this may apply.
Earlier in mid-September Essential Products confirmed that Android 8.0 Oreo beta is in the works and should be released on its first flagship phone within the next couple of months. Later in November, the Essential PH-1 landed a new software update including some fixes to Gestures as well as the November Android security patch. At the same time the November patch was being distributed, Essential Products reassured its Twitter followers that the company’s aim is to bring Oreo to the device before the end of the year, and now it appears that this particular goal has been achieved, at least in terms of beta releases. Essential PH-1 owners who may want to get a taste of Android Oreo can now head down to the company’s online website linked in the source section below, enter their email addresses and acquire the file images for manual installation. And assuming that the Oreo beta build doesn’t meet expectations, users can always revert back to the latest public Android OS build by acquiring the respective file images from the ‘Current Builds’ section on the Essential website.
The Essential PH-1 is the first smartphone designed and manufactured by Andy Rubin’s new company and was shipped to customers in September 2017 following a couple of weeks of pre-orders. Spec-wise the device features a 5.7-inch display with a resolution of 2560 by 1312 and carries the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 housing eight Kryo CPU cores and an Adreno 540 graphics chip, coupled with 4GB of RAM. It was launched running Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box and needless to say, it shouldn’t take much longer before the device will make the official, public jump to Android Oreo.