A couple days ago staff from Essential held their monthly question and answer session on Reddit. No major surprises were revealed and unfortunately, there was no clarification as to whether Essential will be able to eventually launch a successor device to their initial product. For buyers who have invested in an Essential Phone, the good news is that the company seems to be committed to keeping the device up to date with Android versions through at least the 2019 cycle which would correspond to Android Q.
The news regarding Android updates on the Essential Phone was provided by Rebecca Zavin, Essential's VP of Software Engineering. According to Zavin, if Google sticks to their traditional, annual release of major updates to Android, the Essential Phone should get the updates to both Android P later this year and to Android Q next year. When the Essential Phone was released, it came with Android 7.1 Nougat. Since then, the device has been updated to Android 8.1 Oreo and the company currently has the device participating in the official Android P beta program.
Some other topics of interest included the camera app on the Essential Phone and some Bluetooth issues. For the camera app, Essential plans to release updates to address “top crashes, performance improvements, security fixes, and high impact bugs” even if that means frequent updates have to be issued. By focusing on stability though, Essential has decided to forego development and release of a manual mode for the camera, at least for now.
Essential is also working on a fix for some Bluetooth connectivity issues that have been reported by users. The bad news in that area is that Essential still has not identified the root cause of the problems, so the fix is still pending. The company is also working on an Audio Adapter HD mod for the Essential Phone that will make a traditional headphone jack and high resolution DAC available. However, during the AMA they only indicated “we are getting close” on making that mod a reality.
source: Essential (Reddit)
