Recap of today’s Essential AMA – Portrait mode, Oreo beta, and more

Essential promised to hold AMA (Ask me anything) sessions on Reddit to keep the transparency and intimacy between customers and fans, alike. Today’s AMA session came and went and we’re going to take a look at some of the points that were touched on earlier today.

Probably the most significant piece of information from the AMA is that the camera will be receiving and update that will enable portrait mode on the Essential PH-1 and Android Oreo Beta V2 is coming next week.

Here are the points that were discussed during Essential’s AMA on November 29 2017. The AMA was held by Rebecca (VP of Software), Joe (VP of Hardware), Sean (Quality Engineer), and Marcus (Software Program Manager). Andy Rubin was not available for this AMA during his temporary leave of absence.

• Android Oreo Beta V2 is scheduled to release next week. Updates include: Bluetooth performance, battery life improvements, and overall stability fixes. "Stay tuned to our socials for official announcements."
• Camera app update will hit Play Store today with portrait mode, improved JPEG compression, bug fixes, and stability improvements.
• Screen-scrolling jitters are a work in progress.
• Regarding the vibrate motor being too strong: Essential will add some kind of option to tweak vibration intensity to a backlog for future consideration.
• Charging dock on the way. Waiting for regulatory clearance before it can go on sale. Pricing not available yet but "it will be reasonable". The dock will only work to charge the phone, no data communication.
• Android 8.1 will hopefully hit the PH-1 "shortly after" the first public Oreo release.
• Aptx for Bluetooth is still being worked on, mostly regulatory stuff
• The Stellar Gray color should become available before the end of this year.
• Essential wants its next phone to be more repairable. "We will make sure that your phone can be repaired at a reasonable and competitive price."
• Essential is working with car dealerships to test possible fixes for the Android Auto issues with Honda and Hyundai vehicles.
• Front-facing flash will be available in a future release, no ETA was given though.
• Essential hopes to have Android Treble implemented around the time that Oreo is released.

Aside from the camera and Beta updates, not many significant things were discussed, but many small things.

We really like the open communication that an AMA gives to customers of a company and hope to see more companies holding open discussions for customers to give feedback on a more open-mic kind of basis.

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