If you've been following the trials and tribulations of the Essential Phone, you'll know that it arrived to market with a few showstopping bugs and a camera that wouldn't quit. Oh, wait — a camera that always Force Quit.
Anyway, months later, the Essential Phone is now $200 less — a cool $499 — and considerably more stable, with improved camera quality and speed. And, as promised during a tell-all AMA, the phone now has access to Android 8.0 Oreo in beta.
The installation process is a bit convoluted and involves using the command line to sideload a new ROM through ADB, so if that the preceding words made no sense to you, it's probably best to wait until the release is public, and available through an over-the-air update.
If those words made you salivate, though, the instructions are fairly straightforward.
