Essential PH-1 Android 8.0 Oreo dropped, skipping to 8.1 instead
Smaller OEMs like OnePlus, Nokia, and Essential boast of their speed at pushing out updates, especially when compared to Samsung's snail-paced schedule. While that is generally through, it seems that owners of Essential's first and so far only phone have a lot more waiting to do for one of its biggest updates. After weeks of undergoing public beta testing for Android 8.0, the company has decided to cancel that update. Instead, it will jump directly to Android 8.1, which means an extended period of testing.
It's a bittersweet piece of news to hear. The Oreo update should already be on its way out to the general public in a matter of weeks. Essential, however, says that it came across some stability problems. Problems that they believe will be addressed in Android 8.1, the latest version of Oreo.
Of course, that means they will still have to test whether that's true. Which means another round of beta testing which could last for weeks yet again. Fortunately, the brunt of the work would have already been done in the initial 8.0 version, as 8.1 is just a minor update in comparison.
An update on the public release of Oreo: pic.twitter.com/fPJRtX7kvY
— Essential (@essential) January 30, 2018
It's a disappointing development but one that isn't entirely unexpected. This is, after all, Essential's first rodeo. Even with Andy Rubin involved, there was always a chance that missteps or overestimation will be made. To its credit, Essential does have a track record of pushing timely updates that fix other issues, particularly with the PH-1's camera. Users will have to make do with those updates until the big one finally lands.