Android 10 Q beta review

Conclusion

We appreciate the fact that for the past few years Google has decided to develop new Android versions more in the open than before, with a bunch of betas accessible to developers and interested consumers alike. This lets us see every new iteration coming into shape - it's like watching the sausage getting made, only more exciting and less gross.

That said, at this moment Android Q is still a few more betas removed from its finalized state, so unsurprisingly it lacks a bit (or more) of polish here and there, and there are the inevitable bugs too. Compared to the Pie beta that came out last year during I/O, this build feels a bit less ready for the prime time, a bit more buggy and with slightly more issues. But that's not us complaining - after all, we got to play with its new features, which other Pixel owners are only going to see in August at the earliest.

Speaking of features, it's great that Google has realized that its first attempt at a gesture navigation system was fundamentally broken and decided to fix it, but the way it chose to do that has introduced a big new problem that relates to a conflict with accessing apps' navigation drawers. We really don't believe that the company will manage to convince all app developers to quickly set 'exclusion zones' for the Back gesture, and even if this happens different apps may define the exclusion zone differently, which will make for a very poor and unpredictable user experience. To alleviate this developers could just get rid of the slide-out drawers entirely, but we don't seen that happening either, and especially not in a timely manner by the time Q is finished, so our hope is that Google itself will further tweak the new gestures to account for this issue.

As it seems from this beta, Android 10 Q will not be a huge update - aside from the navigation system and minor revamps to notification control it doesn't really change a lot of user-facing things, unless you count the system-wide manually-engageable dark theme to be huge. So it's more of an iterative improvement which funnily enough might not be worth carrying the "10" version number and the big things that implies. Google keeps modifying notifications with every new release, and shuffling things over in Settings, but if you update your Pixel from Pie to Q the new iteration will definitely not feel very different and the learning curve, if there will even be one for you, is bound to be minimal.

This year the beta program has expanded to include more smartphones than ever before, although this doesn't mean you're getting the exact same experience as you do when you install it on a Pixel 3. It all starts with enrolling in the beta - if you have a Pixel, you just go to Google's special website and click a button. That's it, you'll receive the build via an over-the-air software update. For any other phone, you need to undergo a manual download and installation procedure which is much more cumbersome for the average consumer and there is not always a clearly described rollback procedure.

That might be for the best, though, given the state of the beta build on other handsets. We've tested it on the Realme 3 Pro and the OnePlus 6T, and while the software on the Pixel 3 is possible to use on a daily basis (if you don't mind all the minor bugs it comes with), on the other two devices there were too many features missing or too many bugs in general to allow for trouble-free use as a daily driver. Also note that we tried using the beta on a Pixel XL and just couldn't - it's so buggy and laggy that it's only worth installing on such an old device if you're a developer testing apps, perhaps.

While it's commendable that Google has decided to extend the software support window for the original Pixels in this manner, this reveals that keeping its older handsets speedy across new versions of the OS is definitely not a priority for the company - and that might be something to keep in mind whenever you think about shelling out top dollar for a flagship Pixel.

If your phone isn't a Pixel you're still going to be in for a wait after Google officially drops the stable build of Q, as usual. Also, as is the unfortunate tradition in the Android world, how many of the new user-facing improvements you'll actually get to experience when your device's manufacturer decides to issue the update to Q is debatable.

Android One phones should be the closest to Pixels in this regard, and are supposed to be next in line, timeline-wise, to actually see the update - although that's the theory, in the past it hasn't always held true. And then there are handsets such as the Essential Phone, which essentially (excuse the pun) runs a stock-like version of the OS and gets updates pretty fast, so it's likely you'll see everything we described here on it.

Next come the skins that are customized but still don't stray far from the stock experience, like OnePlus' OxygenOS or Asus' new ZenUI 6, which should also come with almost all of these improvements, even if it could take months for the update to actually appear.

Now, we have to note that a few Android device makers have promised very quick updates this year after Q is finalized, but we'll believe that when we see it. We're only skeptical because we've been burned before by such promises, and it's unfortunately still true that if you want to get a new Android version on day one, you need to own a Pixel.

The heavier your OEM's skin, the less chance you'll have any of Google's UI changes built-in. With the heaviest of skins, such as MIUI, it doesn't even make a lot of sense to wait for a new Android version to reach you, because any new design or functional change you may see usually comes as part of a MIUI update. Regardless of which phone you have, though, all of the under the hood enhancements that Google has built into Android Q are definitely coming your way once the update is available for you, if that's any consolation.

We're looking forward to taking the final, stable build of Android 10 Q for a spin when Google releases it later this summer, so stay tuned for our full review coming soon after that.