The Essential Phone has evolved more than any recent device I can think of in a short period of time. A consistent flow of software updates have fixed many complaints about the camera and overall performance, and a $200 price cut has taken it from “overpriced” to an amazing deal. The company is now adding an additional feature that users of the Pixel series already enjoy – fingerprint gestures. A patch for the KRACK Wi-Fi vulnerability is also included in the update.
The new fingerprint gestures allow users to swipe down on the rear sensor to reveal the notification shade and swipe up to remove it. It's a feature that was curiously missing at launch and I'm glad to see it finally added. Like the Pixel series, little additions like this make a bone stock Android experience more complete.
The patch for the KRACK Wi-Fi vulnerability that hit a couple of weeks ago is bundled with Google's October security patch, bug fixes, performance enhancements and better touch scrolling. The download is almost 75MB and is available now for unlocked Essential Phones. After downloading in the background, a device restart will complete the installation. Sprint customers will face a short delay until the carrier approves the update for their locked version.
As a side note, a Twitter user asked Andy Rubin about the Android 8.0 Oreo update for the Essential Phone on October 29th and Rubin said, “O is almost ready to go.”
Source: Essential
