The Essential Phone can’t be considered a great hit, with a report of just 88,000 units shipped worldwide during last year, the first phone from Andry’s Rubin startup is what we would call a flop. However, this doesn’t stop the company from providing updates for the handset.
The company announced during last month that the Android 8.0 update was causing more trouble than expected, in order to fulfill users need, they would skip it and bring a more stable Android 8.1 instead. Today Essential is starting to roll out the first 8.1 beta for those who’ve already running beta builds of Android 8.0 Oreo.
The OTA update weighs at 500MB and brings all the goodies introduced by Google with their latest cookie. The Android 8.1 Oreo update for the Essential Phone includes smart text selection, instant apps, picture-in-picture mode, faster boot up time, notifications channels and autofill API. Furthermore, Essential added the latest Google’s February Security Patch, Dynamic Calendar, new Clock icons and a fix for Slow Scrolling.