Firmware news roundup [08/13/18]: manufacturers Beta testing Android Pie, and more

This week, on our weekly firmware news roundup: Essential Phone receives Android Pie on the same day that it gets announced, multiple manufacturers - including Nokia, HTC, Sony Huawei, are getting ready to release Android Pie for their devices, and more.

What's new this week?

Nokia

• Nokia 7 Plus receives Android Pie in Beta 4

HTC

• 4 HTC devices scheduled to receive Android Pie

Sony

• The latest update for the Xperia XZ2 Premium brings important camera improvements
• Six Sony devices will receive Android Pie between September and November

Huawei

• Huawei is already testing Android Pie on some of its devices

Samsung

• Mid-range Samsung devices may not receive Android Oreo till 2019

Essential

• Essential Phone receives Android Pie

Google

• Pixel phones have already started receiving Android Pie
• The Android Pie statue gets revealed
• Complaints are already coming in for Android Pie

Nokia

Good news for Nokia 7 Plus owners. Nokia officially announced that the Android Pie Beta 4 is now available for 7 Plus.If the beta is here, then chances are that at some point, we'll see a stable version as well. Now, when that'll be, we have no idea. You'll just have to wait and see. On our part, if we learn anything new, then we'll keep you updated.

HTC

As you can see in the image above, HTC officially announced that 4 of its devices will receive Android Pie. Those include the HTC U12+, U11+, U11, and U11 life (Android One).We've yet to receive any information regarding on when they'll come out and if we'll get the chance to try them in their Beta phases. But, if we do learn anything, we'll keep you updated.

Sony

The Xperia XZ2 Premium has a dual-camera which misses a lot of basic features that you often find in other smartphones. Thankfully, Sony is already delivering new features through updates.To be more specific, the latest update brings the Bokeh and the Monochrome dual camera effect. You can find them by pressing the function key below the shutter button. Furthermore, this update also includes the August security patches.But, wait, there's more. Sony plans on updating six of its devices to Android Pie. Those are the Xperia XZ2, Xperia XZ2 Compact, Xperia XZ2 Premium, Xperia XZ1, Xperia XZ1 Compact, and Xperia XZ Premium.These updates are expected to arrive somewhere between September and November. At the moment, we don't have any more information regarding the Beta testing programme or anything like that. However, we'll keep you updated once we find something new.

Huawei

When we first heard of Android Pie, we couldn't help but think about which devices other than the Google Pixel phones would receive this new OS. We already knew that smartphones which received the Android Developer Previews would likely also get the stable version, but that's about it.Well, not anymore. We've already started seeing a few devices - including those from Sony and HTC - that are likely to get Android Pie. The Essential Phone already got it and now Huawei is beta testing it in 4 of its flagships.To be more specific, those devices include the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, Huawei, P20, Honor 10, Honor V10, and the P20 Pro. However, this is still in Beta testing - which means that there's no guarantee about these devices getting the latest version of Android.Speaking of which, more are bound to follow up soon enough. At the moment, we don't know which ones, but we'll keep you updated once we find out.

Samsung

Other than the fact that last week we finally got to see the Note 9 being revealed, we've had nothing but bad news from Samsung and its updates. Especially in the past couple of weeks.As you possibly saw before in one of our previous roundups, we had already mentioned that certain Samsung devices won't get Android Oreo till December. Now, it gets worse.We happened to come across this article in Phone Arena where it looks like certain mid-range Samsung devices won't get Oreo until the next year. Ouch!Some of those include the Galaxy J7, the Galaxy J7 Max, the Galaxy C7 Pro, the Galaxy C9 Pro, the Galaxy Tab A (2017), the Galaxy A9 Pro, and more.

Essential

The Essential Phone was always very quick to receive the latest updates. Well, this time is no different. Essential officially announced that Android Pie is now available for the Essential Phone.It's good to see that companies aside from Google are looking to update their devices as fast as possible. If you wish to know about some of the new features that Android Pie has, then you can check out this article.

Google

Last week, we came to learn that Android 9 is officially called Android Pie. Almost immediately after the name announcement, we also came to know that Android Pie is already being delivered over the air to Google Pixel devices.Other than that, Google also mentioned that devices which received the Beta version of Android Pie should also receive the stable version very soon. As for other smartphones, well, only time can tell.Furthermore, as you can see in the image above, the Android Pie statue has been revealed. Most people in the comment sections seem to feel dissatisfied with the new statue. What about you? Let us know in the comments down below.As for the OS by itself, while it's still barely out, users are already complaining about it. It was a few days ago where we spotted someone on Reddit saying that the split screen feature is too tedious to enable.Well, at this point, this post has more than 600 upvotes and numerous points. So, many people seem to already be dissatisfied with Android Pie.If you feel like we forgot something important, then let us and the whole world know down in the comments below!Like what you see? Then don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to receive the latest news and more!

SOURCES: GOOGLE, ESSENTIAL, PHONE ARENA, REDDIT, GSM ARENA, XPERIA BLOG, GIZ CHINA, TWITTER 1, 2,