Is the Android O Dev Preview 2 stable enough for your daily driver? Here’s​ our experience so far

When Google announced that the Android O Beta Program was being opened during the I/O 2017 keynote, I immediately went and enrolled my Pixel XL. For me personally, I end up running buggy software even on my daily drivers just so that I can have the latest and greatest ASAP. To my surprise, though, Android O Developer Preview 2 is actually quite stable and enjoyable.

But don’t just take my word for it, below are comments from several other 9to5Google authors with their thoughts on Android O after using it for several days…

Abner Li:

The Android O Developer Preview is shockingly stable. Famous last words, but that’s my experience. Maybe it’s the Pixel, but last year on the Nexus 5X I had to revert after a week. I don’t encounter crashes that are out of the ordinary for Android, and the Pixel’s best features – like the camera – continue to be snappy. All mission critical apps from Google and third-parties work.

Running on my daily driver, O’s new features, like key codes in the navigation bar, have already been ingrained into my workflow. It’s already hard to use a non-O device.

Ben Schoon:

I’ve never been too shy to install betas on my daily driver, but when the first Android O preview hit, I was hesitant, especially considering how light it was on new features. Now, with developer preview 2, I’m glad to say that things are working brilliantly.

On my Pixel XL, I installed both the initial developer preview and its first quick bugfix update via the Android Beta Program over an OTA. Since the installation, things have been excellent. There’s a stutter here and a crash there (two in total since I started using the preview), and I have noticed a bit of odd behavior with Bluetooth, especially in the car. Overall, though, I’ve been impressed with just how stable things have been so far.

As for O’s features, they’ve already become invaluable. Smart text selection is such a small thing, but it comes in handy basically immediately. Further, picture-in-picture mode on YouTube is awesome, and it’s really tempting me to install the preview on my Pixel C tablet.

I honestly couldn’t have said it any better than Abner or Ben. When the first Developer Preview build was released, I, of course, went ahead and flashed it onto my Pixel XL. While I thought it was a good start, it was incredibly evident that this was an alpha build at best and there was a reason why Google hadn’t opened up the Beta Program just yet. Build number two though was miles better. When I first installed it, I did notice some stability issues, but given that this was still a beta version of Android O, I thought it was magnificent. So much so that I even tweeted to tell people that it was stable enough to test if they were holding off.

Those performance issues I mentioned? Well, Google has already pushed out a second OTA update that not only squashed most of the hiccups that I was experiencing but also reenabled the use of Android Pay.

So would I say it is stable enough to use on your daily driver? I say yes, mainly because it is stable enough for me to keep on my daily driver. With the first Developer Preview, it was so buggy that I had it on my device for maybe two hours, long enough for me to check it out and then revert back to Nougat. With the Android O beta build, there are some slight performance bumps here and there, but overall, it isn’t half bad.

So, if you haven’t yet enrolled in the Android O Beta Program and now want to, you can head on over to our tutorial on how to do so. Also, make sure to let us know your experience with Android O so far!