Following many smartphone manufacturers, the Essential Phones is also rolling out the latest Android 8.0 Oreo Beta program. The OTA is now available for download which comes with a firmware build number OPM1.170911.130. This is the first beta update available for the Essential PH1. You will see Oreo Beta 2 as soon as next month. So stay tuned. Meanwhile, you can download the direct OTA update available for the Essential Phone and install via stock recovery or ADB sideload method.
Essential Phones gained a lot of popularity ever since the launch of its first ever PH-1 smartphone. It comes with top-notch hardware specifications and sports the latest Android 7.1 Nougat software out of the box. The phone was designed keeping into account all the essential features desired by smartphone users. This includes a clean and minimalist software which is close to stock Android (AOSP), latest hardware configuration, bezel-less touchscreen, a good camera, and a large battery life. Now with Oreo update, the phone is back.
Being a beta build, the Oreo update for Essential PH1 comes with some bugs, and stability issues. There are some known issues like:
- Intermittent Bluetooth connectivity issues with certain auto brands
- Battery performance degradations until optimized Oreo framework complete
- Occasional ANRs with certain apps
How to download and install Essential Phone Oreo Beta update?
The first method is to sign up for Essential Phone Oreo beta test. However, you won’t receive an OTA update (Over-the-air update) for the phone. So meanwhile, you can simply grab the Essential Phone Oreo Beta 1 and flash it using the stock recovery or ADB sideload method.
Read detailed tutorial on: How to install OTA updates on Android devices?
ADB sideload Essential Phone Oreo Beta
- Download build of Essential Phone Oreo Beta 1 (OPM1.170911.130) – download
- Make sure to enable USB debugging, OEM unlock, and Advanced reboot from the developer options.
- Ensure to setup ADB and Fastboot on your PC.
- Download the Essential Phone Oreo Beta OTA from above and transfer to PC.
- Open command prompt or terminal window at the Oreo OTA update location
- Connect Android device to PC via USB cable.
- Enter the following code via cmd or terminal to reboot into stock recovery.
- Once into the recovery, choose option like “apply update from ADB”.
- Enter the following command via terminal to ADB sideload the OTA.
- Once the update finishes, select Reboot phone to system.
If anything goes wrong, you can revert back to the previous stable November security patch based on Android 7.1 Nougat.