The second Android P Developer Preview came out almost two weeks ago in the form of a public beta. But even though it’s a public, doesn’t necessarily mean you should be running it on your primary smartphone. Here are our thoughts on if it’s stable enough to run on your daily driver.
When Google releases these beta builds of Android months before they’re ready for the primetime, it’s primarily to give developers time to test their apps against new features and APIs. But just because it’s available doesn’t mean just anyone should install it.
From our time with the Android P Beta, we can say it’s relatively stable for pre-release software. When you’re using your handset with it installed, you definitely run into hiccups and lag from time to time. There are also times that you will probably to restart the phone to get things moving semi-smoothly again.
For these reasons, we can say that the Android P Beta is stable enough for some to run on their daily drivers, but only for those users who understand that there can be technical difficulties. As our own Stephen Hall says, “I think it’s stable enough for any tech-savvy person to use as a daily.”
One thing to note is that not all apps will work while your phone is running the beta. At least for me, though, this has been the most stable Android beta I’ve run in this regard. In my experience, the only app that hasn’t worked is Snapchat.
But at the same time, be prepared for the beta to crash and potentially corrupt your phone. After running the beta for a week and a half, Android P on my Pixel 2 XL seized up and the display turned black. After a minute, the phone tried to restart itself.
After going through the boot sequence, my Pixel rebooted again and ended up in the recovery menu saying that the Android system was corrupt. From there, all I could do was wipe the device and start from fresh. There was no restoring my device or pulling any data off of it.
Remember, folks, don't run beta firmware (like Android P) on your daily drivers. I say this as I try to recover my corrupted Pixel 2 XL
— Justin Duino (@jaduino) May 18, 2018
But this sort of event isn’t the norm for most running the Android P Beta. Out of everyone I know running the developer preview, I am the only one who has run into this specific problem. So if you are thinking about installing it, just make sure you know that there will be some small issues and it could potentially corrupt your device.
If you haven’t yet enrolled in the Android P 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 P so far!
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