Well, it's stable enough for a beta, but it's not perfect as a daily driver. You weren't expecting a different answer, were you? Beta software is never without its quirks, and as we have noticed in the day or so that we have been using the Oreo beta on a Galaxy S8, there's some work left to be done. A lot of our readers have asked how the beta works, and those who like a short answer could do without reading further.
So what's the problem with the Oreo beta?
The bugs we have faced on the Oreo beta aren't too significant, except for the phone randomly freezing now and then. The freezing issues don't need a restart to be fixed, but they are part of the early Oreo experience, even on a Galaxy S8 that was factory reset before the beta was installed. There's also an odd bug that may or may not affect folks who are using the beta. Sometimes, if we go into the system settings from inside an app and then press the back button, the phone just drops us back into the settings menu.
This can also happen when we, for example, are in WhatsApp and open the keyboard's settings. Again, it's an odd bug, but it's there. One issue that's more easily noticeable is with rendering. As you can see in the screenshot of the Always On Display settings, the interface can be messed up in some places. Maybe it's to do with the resolution settings that Samsung offers on its flagships or just a regular issue that crops up on test versions of newer versions of Android; we're not sure. However, we guess it will be an easy fix.
It's not all bad, though. Our Galaxy S8 is now running faster and smoother than it was on Nougat. It remains to be seen if the phone will slow down after a few months of usage, but right now, it's a joy to use the phone as far as general performance is concerned. Well, at least until it freezes, which is when we're reminded there's some ways to go before the stable version of Android 8.0 Oreo rolls out to users.
Before that happens, there will be a few updates to the beta, which will fix current issues and no doubt introduce new ones. As we said before, it's only been a day since we have had access to the data, so it's likely we haven't discovered all the problems in the first beta. We'll keep looking, and in addition to updates on its stability, we'll keep reporting on all the new features and changes that Oreo introduces.
Have you managed to enroll in the Android 8.0 Oreo beta? If yes, what has your experience been like? Any major bugs or issues affecting your Galaxy S8 or Galaxy S8+? Let us know by leaving a comment!
