Essential Phone gets Android Pie update on the same day as Google Pixel

Google just officially named and released Android 9 as Android Pie for Google Pixel phones. Essential isn’t far behind as the company also announced the update will be making its way to the Essential Phone PH-1 right now. For a smaller startup that’s also been rumoured to be struggling, Essential has kept its user base consistently updated with regular software improvements and optimizations. Here’s to hoping the other bigger companies follow its lead and bring a slice of Android Pie to its users sooner rather than later.

Update on Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 9:14AM by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

This doesn't seem to be happening for TELUS customers since they're apparently taking time before rolling out the update. It is no secret TELUS has dropped interest in PH-1 and has shifted their marketing to the Huawei P20. Let's hope the carrier does right by their customers and rolls out Android P in Canada soon.

Essential Phone fixes issues with its camera app

The newest update coming to the Essential Phone puts the focus on new camera features in hopes of appeasing those who are criticizing the phone for its pitfalls in this area. It isn’t a major update but it does improve the experience of using the camera app. The stability of the app itself has been improved to prevent it from freezing up occasionally. On top of this, Essential adds app shortcuts to the camera app. You just need to long-press the camera icon and you can get access to features like mono, selfie, and portrait modes. Essential also optimized the Camera Roll, which has also been prone to crashes.

Source: 9to5Google

Essential releases third Oreo beta build, includes patches for Spectre and Meltdown

While we still have no idea when the official Android Oreo release will come to the Essential Phone, the company is at least releasing another beta update roughly a month after the second beta was released. This latest update is an important one. It’s not bringing cool new features, but it comes with Google’s January security patch which includes fixes for the Spectre and Meltdown exploits as well as other stability and bug fixes. So, if you’ve been using the beta version, you might want to update now. It’s 1GB from Essential’s website or will come as an over-the-air update for those running beta 2 and comes in at approximately 106MB.

Source: Android Authority

Essential brings Portrait Mode to PH-1

When the Essential PH-1 launched, its camera’s Portrait Mode wasn’t enabled yet. Thankfully that’s changed now and the startup just updated the device to reflect that. Aside from having Portrait Mode, the update brings reduced JPEG compression for better image quality and exposure compensation for regular camera modes. The update also introduces the usual stability fixes. You can get the Camera app from this link. On the Android Oreo front, according to a recent Reddit AMA with the company, Android Oreo Beta for the PH-1 will be coming out next week.

Source: GSMArena