It's been almost a month since Essential rolled out the second Oreo beta for its phone. If you were hoping for a final release, that's not happening yet. Essential has, however, released a third Oreo beta for the Essential Phone. It includes new security patches and minor fixes.
The new version (build OPM1.170911.254) is a 1GB download if you grab it from the Essential site. A smaller OTA appears to be rolling out to devices running Beta 2 already. Here are the changes in the latest update.
- Google Security patches 2018-01 including Spectre and Meltdown
- Misc Stability and Bug Fixes
The changelog for beta 3 still lists all the "new" features from the last update. So, the following aren't actually new for the beta, but they aren't included in the stable builds.
- Smart text selection, instant apps, picture-in-picture
- Faster startup and app sign-in
- Google Play Protect Security scans
If you're still on the stable release, you can flash the new beta on top of that. We don't know how close Essential is to a final Oreo release, but hopefully it won't be long now.