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Koss Porta Pro Wireless headphones review: The retro re-do that mostly works

They’re retro, but that doesn’t make them outdated.

I’ve been wearing the Koss Porta Pros since I was 14. They were the first pair of “audiophile” headphones I could afford after starting to research how to get better sound out of my summer-job paycheck.

Everyone agreed, even way back in 1999, that the Porta Pro headphones were an anomaly, a confluence of retro design and excellent engineering.

Koss Porta Pro Wireless

Price: $79.99

Bottom line: Koss’s Porta Pro Wireless recycles a 1984 design for 2018, and it mostly works. That’s thanks to amazing sound, a comfortable fit, and ultra-portable design.

The Good

• The same amazing sound quality
• Preserves interesting retro design
• Folds up nicely for easy travel
• Excellent battery life
• Qualcomm aptX codec support

The Bad

• Poor Bluetooth range
• Wire design dangles and distracts
• Blue light constantly blinks when connected

See at Amazon

Koss Porta Pro An institution

For a pair of headphones that’s been around since 1984, Koss’s original Porta Pros are among the most popular modern wired headphones on the market. Most of that popularity comes from its great sound and simple design, but a significant part is its price. Koss has kept its price under $40 for the good part of the decade, which, through Amazon promotion, word of mouth, and good reviews, has kept it among the highest-selling on-ear wired headphones out there.

Despite its goofy, retro design, people buy and use the Porta Pro today because of its fundamentals: a warm, rich round, with plenty of bass and a decided lack of sibilance in the highs; a lightweight, comfortable body that can be worn for hours without fatigue; and tremendous portability in its loop-and-lock design.

In 2012, Koss introduced a wired version of the Porta Pros with an in-line remote for smartphones, but it never quite took off. Now with a wireless version, the Porta Pro is back in the spotlight — and at $80, still among the best deals in headphones.

Koss Porta Pro Wireless What’s to like

When you think of Porta Pro, you think of warmth: most of the positive reviews over the years have stressed this aspect of the headphone’s sonic signature. The soft foam earpads sit on top of the ear, giving the relatively large drivers a direct line of site into the ear canal. Given that these were designed in 1984, you’d be surprised not just by the bass response but its complexity; you’re getting a lot of bass, but it’s also accurate and not overwhelming.

The headphone’s open nature allows for a relatively wide soundstage, though I must say that you can find many modern closed-back options with superior positioning. And the mids are just buttery: from vocals to instruments like guitars and violins, the reproduction is anything but neutral but it’s incredibly lush and rich. There’s no sibilance, either, with recessed highs that ensure you won’t be turning down the volume when the treble picks up.

The Koss Porta Pro Wireless (left) next to the original Porta Pro headphones (right)

That Koss hasn’t attempted to alter the sound from the Porta Pros going wireless has its pros and cons. There are plenty of decent $80 on-ear wireless headphones to choose from these days, and the question is whether, at double the cost of the wired versions, the Porta Pro Wireless are worth the cash. I’d say yes, mainly because they’re far more portable than other options that emit this type of sound. Better still, these have a balanced sound, whereas most on- or over-ear headphones in this price range suffer from too much bass.

The transition to wireless isn’t perfect, but the Porta Pro Wireless retains the great sound of the original.

Going wireless, then, is really just the next logical step for these headphones. Instead of terminating at a 3.5mm jack, the cable wraps around and connects back to the other earpiece; on one side, a fairly large protrusion holds the battery and wireless gadgetry, and on the other is a three-button remote with play/pause, volume up and down buttons, microphone, and a Bluetooth connection LED. It may not be the most intuitve implementation, but it’s fine, and provides ample battery life and portability.

Koss ensured that the Porta Pros stayed true to their name by giving the headphones 12-hour uptime per charge, with easy recharging via Micro-USB, protected by a flap. Sure, I’d have liked USB-C, but that would have added to the cost.

That the Porta Pro fold up so delightfully small makes them easy to recommend; their modest size belies an outsized and warm sound that everyone will appreciate.

Koss Porta Pro Wireless What’s not to like

Not all is well in the transition from wired to wireless in the Porta Pro line. First, the wireless hardware feels tacked on. The wires hang low like a necklace, flopping around when you walk and making the cans a bit bottom-heavy. And they’re just not elegant or attractive.

Worse is the constant blue flashing of the LED when the headphones are connected to a phone or laptop via Bluetooth. It’s distracting in dark environments and not user-configurable. In other words, there’s no way to disable the incessant flashing. Chalk it up to Koss’s relative inexperience in the wireless headphone market, maybe, but the company isn’t brand new at this. There’s no excuse for such an oversight.

At the same time, while I love the Porta Pro Wireless sound, it has that typical open-back problem of leaking sound: this is not the headphone to use in a quiet cafe, nor on a plane.

It’s great for a walk, or to enjoy while sitting at home, but despite its ultra-portable nature, its design limits the Porta Pro’s potential. It’s also unfortunate that the headphones don’t have great Bluetooth range; despite supporting the aptX codec and Bluetooth 4.1, you’re going to notice dropoff walking 10-15 feet away from your source.

Koss Porta Pro Wireless Should you buy them?

There’s a lot of headphone competition out there right now, but the Porta Pro Wireless, despite its flaws, fills an important niche. If you’re concerned with sound quality above all else, these are among the best Bluetooth headphones under $100.

At the same time, they’re not great for working out or even working at a coffee shop. Their open design bleeds considerable sound at high volumes while letting in a lot of the outside world.

4
out of 5

For those yearning for the Porta Pro sound signature without needing a headphone jack or dongle, these are great, and I’ve been using them a lot at home and on walks, but I’ll stick with my pair of OnePlus Bullets Wireless for runs, and my Sony WH1000MX2 for planes.

See at Amazon

Google Lens is a student’s best friend: How to copy-paste text from the real world

Let Google copy down all that information for you.

Google Lens is one of the more underappreciated Google services out there, and nowhere is this more true than in education. Sure, Google Lens can scan barcodes and identify some real-world objects when you need to figure out which one of those vines is poison oak, but the real magic in Google Lens was a little feature announced at Google I/O that made everyone who’s ever had to copy down notes off of their teacher’s blackboard stand up and cheer: the ability to copy-paste text from the real world into your phone or computer.

Smart text selection — as the feature is officially called — will save you time and energy whether you’re copying study notes out of a textbook or scanning in contact information for classmates, co-workers, and friends.

Ready to copy this down?

• Where can you use Google Lens’ text selection features
• How to copy-paste real-world text in the Google Lens app
• How to copy-paste real-world text in the Google Photos app

Where can you use Google Lens’ text selection features

At its inception, Google Lens was only available on the Google Pixel 2, but it’s since rolled out to the general public. Not only is Google Lens available as a standalone app in Google Play for Android devices running Marshmallow or above, but Google Lens has been added into the default camera app for phones from a variety of manufacturers.

Smart text selection on Google Lens via Google Photos app on a Google Pixelbook

But why students should really rejoice is that Google Lens has been incorporated into the Google Photos app, meaning that you can use the smart text selection and real-world copy-paste on pictures you’ve already taken on:

• Android phones and tablets
• iPhones and iPads
• Chromebooks with Google Play and Android app support

The number of Chromebooks that are compatible with Android apps has been rising steadily over the last year and a half, so if you’re not sure if yours has it, check our handy list of Google Play-compatible Chromebooks. Using smart text selection on a Chromebook where you can use a keyboard for quickly amending any text errors or adding notes on the fly is a wonderful, wonderful thing I wish I could’ve used when I was in college.

How to copy-paste real-world text in the Google Lens app

Whether you launch Google Lens from the dedicated app or from inside your phone’s camera app, the feature works blissfully the same way.

Open Google Lens or tap the Google Lens icon inside your phone’s camera app (if available).
Tap Continue.
Tap the text you wish to copy for Google Lens to scan it for letters and words. Drag the circles at the ends of your highlighted text to select a larger section.

Tap Copy in the menu that appears above the highlighted section.

Open the app or document you wish to copy the text into.
Long press the cursor in your app or document to summon the selection menu.

Tap Paste.

I will say that smart text selection in the Google Lens app has not been quite as consistent as using it in Google Photos, but it’s quicker to open and activate, and you don’t have to save pictures of everything when you use it.

How to copy-paste real-world text in the Google Photos app

Google Photos is the more consistent method for smart text selection and real-world copy paste, and since Google Photos is analyzing photos that are in your library, you can use them on older photos or take photos during an event or class and then use Google Photos to extract the text later when compiling your notes.

As a reminder when attempting this on Chromebooks, you need to do this from the Google Photos app on Google Play, not the Google Photos website.

Open Google Photos
Open the picture you wish to extract text from.

Tap the Google Lens icon in the bottom right corner.

Tap Continue.
Tap to highlight the full text you wish to copy. Drag the circles at the ends of your highlighted text to select a smaller selection if you don’t want to copy all the text Google Lens detects in your photo.

Tap Copy in the menu that appears above the highlighted section.

Open the app or document you wish to copy the text into.
Long press the cursor in your app or document to summon the selection menu.

Tap Paste.

Do you copy?

Whether you’re just copying some class notes into study guide or copying billing information for an invoice, Google Lens’s smart text selection is an invaluable tool both for time-saving and for convenience. It still struggles at times with messy handwriting and obscure fonts sometimes, so make sure you scan through the finished text after saving it into Google Drive or Google Keep to ensure it didn’t misspell anything or leave out any context-changing words. Google Lens is getting better and better at making out text all the time, and the more people use smart text selection, the better it becomes, so use it early, use it often, and say goodbye to hand-copying notes forever!

Read more: Best Chromebooks for students

Chromebooks

• The best Chromebooks
• Chromebooks in education: Everything you need to know
• Should you buy a Chromebook?
• Chromebook Buyers Guide
• Google Pixelbook review
• Join our Chromebook forums

Android P: Everything you need to know about Android 9

From new gestures to extending battery life, here’s everything you need to know about Android P!

Following last year’s Oreo release, 2018 is the year of Android P. We’re still some time away before Google rolls out the new software to all users, but even in its current form, P is showing a lot of promise.

Things are bound to change leading up to Android P’s official launch, but for the time being, here’s everything you need to know about this year’s big update.

The latest Android P news

July 25, 2018 — Google pushes Android P Beta 4

“Android P is almost here!” That’s how Google starts its blog post introducing Android P Beta 4, also known as Developer Preview 5, which is available on all supported devices starting today.

According to Google, “Today’s Beta 4 update includes a release candidate build with final system behaviors and the official Android P APIs (API level 28), available since Beta 2. It includes everything you need to wrap up your testing in time for the upcoming official Android P release.” In other words, this is basically the same version that will ship to Pixels later in August, when the public version is released.

How to install Android P on your Pixel right now (or roll back to Oreo)

July 20, 2018 — Android P engineers discuss dark mode, gestures, and more in Reddit AMA

Leading up to the official launch of Android P in about a month or so, the development team behind the new update recently got together for an AMA on Reddit to answer technical questions about P.

The dev team covered a ton of stuff, but there are a few highlights worth pointing out here. First off, when it comes to Android P’s gesture navigation, they had this to say:

We evaluated many, (MANY!) options for navigation as part of this overall change to the system spaces (worth noting that our main impetus was about making All Apps/Overview more accessible from wherever you are in the system, similar to the notification shade). HOME and BACK are so central to Android navigation (both the system and the apps) – that ensuring the dependability of them via buttons with enough space led us to the current design. All that said – we really value both the aesthetic and functional appeal of a smaller nav bar / more gross-gesture navigation and are continuing to explore opportunities to bring that in.

A system-wide dark mode has also been on the minds of many, and to not much surprise, it was said that Google doesn’t “have anything to announce about a unified dark mode.”

The team also explained how maintaining Project Treble is actually more difficult than past efforts, said a fix is coming for Android’s awful sharing menu, and more.

Read through the full AMA here

All the big details

Android P is officially Android 9

As spotted in the third developer preview, Android P is Android 9. This signifies that Android P is a big upgrade from 8.0 Oreo, and based on what we’re about to dive into, we’ve got no problem agreeing with that.

It completely changes Android’s navigation system

Back in 2011 with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, Google introduced Android’s iconic three button navigation system we’ve come to know and love – Back, Home, and Recents. Seven years later with Android P, these are being eliminated in favor of a gesture-based system.

Android P is the first time Google’s heavily relying on gestures for navigating the UI, and in their current form, they work as follows:

• Tap the Home button/pill to go home
• Swipe up to access the recent apps page
• Swipe up twice or do a long swipe for the app drawer
• The Back button only appears in certain apps/menus when it’s needed

This combination of taps and swipes is a bit confusing right now, but we’re expecting Google to roll-out a more refined version of this in later Developer Previews or in the final build. You can still use the traditional three buttons in Developer Preview 2 and 3 if the gestures aren’t your thing, but it’s rather obvious that this is the future Google wants for Android.

Android P’s gestures are a jagged pill you should learn to swallow

The user interface is more rounded and colorful

Android P isn’t as drastic of a visual change like we saw with the jump from KitKat to Lolipop, but compared to Oreo, there are some elements that are noticeably different.

At first glance, things like the colorful icons in Settings, circular Quick Settings icons, and rounded corners for just about every menu jump out like a sore thumb. These elements do take some getting used to, but I ultimately came around to liking them quite a bit.

Something else you’ll notice with Android P is just how alive it feels. Between the new gestures and updated animations, Android moves in a way that I’ve never seen before. Oreo was smooth and buttery, but Android P flies underneath your fingertips in a way that can only be experienced in-person.

There are tools for helping you use your phone less

Google talked a lot about helping people with their “digital wellbeing” at this year’s I/O conference, and a lot of those efforts are baked right into Android P.

Although not live in Developer Preview 2 or 3, later versions of Android P will introduce a new system called Android Dashboard. Android Dashboard will offer a quick glimpse into how you’re using your phone, including stats on which apps you’re using the most, how many times you’ve turned on the screen, how many notifications you’ve received, and how much time you’ve spent on each app.

You’ll also find a feature called App Timers that’ll restrict you from using a certain app after you’ve spent x amount of time on it, as well as tools for easily turning on Do Not Disturb and switching your screen to a monochrome color palette to help you wind down for bed.

Google’s ‘digital wellbeing’ initiative feels incomplete and insincere

Google’s trying to squeeze as much juice as possible out of your battery

It seems like Google’s always trying to find ways to maximize your phone’s battery life as much as possible, and with Android P, those efforts are present in a new Adaptive Battery mode.

Similar to how Adaptive Brightness automatically adjusts your display’s brightness level based on your environment and usage, Adaptive Battery will examine how you use your phone and limit CPU usage to apps you infrequently use.

Google notes that Adaptive Battery can lower CPU usage by as much as 30%, and thanks to the use of Machine Learning, it’ll only get better the more you use your phone.

App shortcuts are everywhere

With Android Nougat, Google introduced us to App Shortcuts for the first time. Holding down on an app icon to quickly access certain elements of it can be genuinely useful at times, and with Android P, Google’s taking these to the next level with App Actions and Slices.

App Actions will try to determine what you’ll do next with your phone and give you recommend shortcuts for doing so within the app drawer, Assistant, and more. For example, if you watch Good Mythical Morning each day with breakfast, you might see an App Shortcut in your app drawer for searching Rhett and Link on YouTube during the morning.

On the other hand, Slices will allow you to perform more complex actions from the Assistant or Google Search. In the example Google gave at I/O, searching “I want to book a ride” will give you a special link to call a ride home via Lyft (assuming you’ve got the app installed).

157 new emoji

In Developer Preview 3, Google added a ton of new emojis to keep your conversations bright and colorful — 157 of them, to be exact.

Although we won’t run through the entire list, some of the highlights include red hair, superhero, face with three hearts, bagel with cream cheese, mooncake, lobster, and llama.

There are also improvements to existing emoji, including two new gender-neutral family and couple designs and updated looks for the bacon, salad, turtle, and cricket emojis.

A new standard for biometric authentication

Fingerprint sensors and face unlock systems make it easier than ever to access private information on our phones, and in Android P Developer Preview 3, Google added a brand-new standard for this called “BiometricPrompt API.”

Thanks to the new API, developers no longer have to create their own dialog for using biometric systems with their apps. This isn’t something you’ll notice in day-to-day use, but it’s an important background change we’re more than happy to see.

All the little things

In addition to the big changes found in Android P, there are a ton of smaller elements also scattered throughout the update. Some of my favorites include:

• Built-in screenshot editor
• Zoom pop-up when highlighting text
• Changing the volume now defaults to your media volume
• Volume controls appear on the right of your screen instead of the top
• Do Not Disturb is more customizable and easier to understand

You can sign up for the beta now

Similar to last year’s Oreo beta, anyone with a Pixel phone can opt-in to the Android P beta right now to get an OTA update to download and play with the new software.

However, Google’s Pixel phones aren’t the only ones that get to have fun with this early access. Google’s opening up its Android Beta Program to third-party OEMs for the first time ever thanks to Project Treble, including Nokia, OnePlus, Sony, Essential, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo.

How to get Android P on your Pixel right now (or roll back to Oreo)

The official build should be released in August

If you’d rather not mess with the beta and just wait for the final version to drop, we’re not too terribly far out from it.

Google notes that the final release for Android P will be published in Q3, and based on the above timeline and Oreo’s release schedule, we should see Android P get a proper launch at some point in August.

Updated July 25, 2018: This article was updated with news of Android P Beta 4.

Android P

• Android P: Everything you need to know
• Android P Beta hands-on: The best and worst features
• All the big Android announcements from Google I/O 2018
• Will my phone get Android P?
• How to manually update your Pixel to Android P
• Join the Discussion

How to install Android P on your Pixel right now (or roll back to Oreo)

Get the Android P Developer Preview on your phone right away.

The Android P beta is up to Developer Preview 5, also known as Beta 4.

The main way to load the Android P preview is to enroll in the Android Beta Program, which makes it super easy to opt in and out of the program. If you’re more hardcore, or want to manually flash the Android P developer preview, we have those instructions, too.

• The easy way
• The harder way

The easy way — Android Beta Program

If you don’t want to mess with unlocking your bootloader or the command line, you will get an update to the Android P if you’re part of the Android Beta program. That means that if you have one of the eligible devices, you can simply visit the Android Beta portal and opt-in to the beta, which will then prompt Google to send your phone or tablet an over-the-air update.

Head to Android Beta program portal on your Pixel phone.
Sign into the Google account associated with that phone.
Scroll down to Your eligible devices.
Find the device you want to enroll in the Beta program and tap Opt in.
Follow the prompts to accept the over-the-air download.

Note: To leave the Beta program, simply tap the Opt out button on the Android Beta Program page to unenroll. Your phone will receive an over-the-air update to return to the latest stable version of Android, but your phone will be wiped clean upon rebooting, so back up your stuff.

Which devices are eligible for the Android Beta Program?

The preview is supported on the following phones and tablets:

• Pixel 2
• Pixel 2 XL
• Pixel
• Pixel XL

The following phones are also eligible to download the Android P Beta, but you’ll need to follow the individual install instructions linked below:

• Nokia 7 Plus
• OnePlus 6
• Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S
• Essential PH‑1
• Sony Xperia XZ2
• OPPO R15 Pro
• Vivo X21

Learn more about the Android P Beta on non-Google devices

The harder way — Flashing through bootloader

Before we go through the steps of sideloading Android updates, it is strongly recommended that you have previous knowledge of working with the Android SDK (software development kit) and the Terminal (OS X or Linux) or Command Prompt (Windows), as it is possible to harm your device if something were to go wrong in the following process.

If you need to download the Android SDK you can grab it from the Android Development website and follow their instructions on how to install it correctly. For the following process, all you will need is the adb and fastboot files which are located in the Platform Tools folder, so make sure to read the description at the dev site and grab the right download.

Additionally, all the following commands are written as they would be in Terminal on a Linux or OS X platform. If you are following this guide and using a Windows machine, you will not need to use the “./” seen in the guide. Just type the rest of the command line by line in the order they are listed and you’ll be good.

Enable developer settings and USB debugging

Go to your Settings and scroll down to About Phone/Tablet.
Tap on the Build number seven times until the dialog box says you are now a developer.
Go back to the Settings menu and you should find a new option called Developer options. Tap into the Developer options.
Make sure that the developer options are turned on and that USB debugging is checked on.
Plug your device into your computer and tap “OK” on the dialog box asking you to Allow USB debugging while connected to the computer. You can also select to always allow access on that computer.

If done correctly, this will be everything you will need to do on your phone or tablet for the moment.

Unlocking your bootloader

Pixel phones bought from Google directly have a bootloader you can unlock. If you want to manually flash software, you’ll need to do this.

To do this you must first boot into your bootloader. You can either manually turn off your phone or tablet and hold down the power button and the volume down button to enter your device’s Bootloader Menu or you can enter the following commands into your terminal or command prompt.

Run the following command to make sure your device is properly connected to your computer. If it returns a string of characters it means that you are all set to start updating your device.

./adb devices

Now to enter into the Bootloader menu just run the following command.

./adb reboot bootloader

At the bottom of the screen, there will be several things listed including the lock state of the device. This should say locked unless you have unlocked your bootloader in the past and never went back and locked it again.

To unlock your bootloader, which is required only when flashing a stock firmware image (not sideloading an update), you must enter the following commands. Remember that when unlocking your phone’s bootloader it will factory reset your device, so you will lose everything stored on it. If you have not yet backed up anything important on your device you can hit the power button while Start is highlighted in the Bootloader menu and this will boot you back into your device like normal. Now back to unlocking your bootloader.

Now type:

./fastboot flashing unlock

A dialog will appear on the device asking if you are sure about unlocking. Again this will factory reset your device, so if you want to back out of the process you just need to select no with the power button. If you are ready to unlock your bootloader you press the volume up button and then the power button to confirm that you wish to unlock your bootloader.

./fastboot reboot-bootloader

It is recommended to reboot the bootloader just to give itself a check to make sure everything is working correctly before moving on to the next step.

Flashing the stock firmware image

Now that your bootloader is unlocked, it’s time to flash the new firmware. To find the images for the developer preview, head on over to the Developer Preview download page, find your device, and download the latest factory image available. It is easiest to then uncompress the file in the Platform Tools folder you downloaded (where the adb and fastboot files are) so that you don’t have to type the path to the different files when flashing the firmware. (Or if you know that you can drag a file into a terminal window to copy the path, just do that.)

To begin, make sure you are still in the bootloader menu on your device and double check that your bootloader is in fact unlocked.

First, make sure that your computer is communicating correctly with your phone or tablet. As long as your device’s serial number comes back as a connected device you are ready to begin updating your device.

./fastboot devices

Now it is time to flash the updated bootloader with the following command.

./fastboot flash bootloader [bootloader file].img

You will not see anything on the screen of your device but there should be a dialog in your terminal or command prompt. When it is done flashing the bootloader you should reboot back into the bootloader to make sure everything is still working correctly.

./fastboot reboot-bootloader

Next, you flash the updated radios. This step is only necessary if you are updating the firmware of a phone or tablet that has cellular radios built into it.

./fastboot flash radio [radio file].img

./fastboot reboot-bootloader

Finally, it’s time to flash the actual system image to your phone or tablet.

Warning: The following line of code will wipe your device. Normally, you can remove the “-w” from the command but when moving to a beta version of Android it’s not guaranteed to work.

./fastboot -w update [image file].zip

When this is done, your phone will restart itself and boot up normally. As this process clears all data from your device, it will take slightly longer for your device to boot up for the first time. Once you have been greeted with the device setup walkthrough process, you know you have successfully flashed a new version of the firmware.

If you do not want to enter the commands manually there are scripts included in the compressed folder containing the system image that will do most but not all of the heavy lifting for you. The flash-all script files will automate the flashing of the bootloader, radios (if needed), and the system image. The problem with this process is that you must first make sure that your phone is in the bootloader menu and its bootloader must be unlocked before starting the script. Of course, if these are not already done the script will fail to run and nothing will happen.

Going back to Oreo

When you’ve had your fun using the Android P Beta, and you’ve figured out that it’s not stable enough to use as a daily driver, it’s time to go back to Oreo. Thankfully the process is simple, and you just learned how to do it! Simply go back through the same steps above, except for two changes: you don’t need to unlock your bootloader again, and you’ll want to download the Oreo factory image from Google instead. Get back to stock, and maybe you’ll check out a future Developer Preview build.

This sounds worse than it is, so don’t worry. But we also understand it can seem like an impossibly difficult thing the first time you’re trying it. That’s OK, we all felt the same way when we first tried it, too. Just take the time to read through everything before you start clicking and tapping things and you’ll do just fine.

If you have any trouble along the way, be sure to hop into the forums and ask for help!

Android P

• Android P: Everything you need to know
• Android P Beta hands-on: The best and worst features
• All the big Android announcements from Google I/O 2018
• Will my phone get Android P?
• How to manually update your Pixel to Android P
• Join the Discussion

Update July 25, 2018: Updated this guide to reflect the release of Android P Beta 4.

Android P Beta 4 ‘release candidate’ now available for Pixels, making way for public launch soon

As we close in on the official build, this is the best (and most stable) time to check out the pre-release software.

Google has just released the fourth beta of Android P to developers and enthusiasts, marking the final release before the final is officially unveiled as a public release. Android P Beta 4 isn’t designed to offer much change over Beta 3, as any substantial change now would likely just be held for the public release. Instead, Beta 4 is the final reminder to app developers that APIs have been finalized and this software is a great testing ground to make sure their apps are ready to go for the new software.

Beta 4 is the last chance to get an early and semi-exclusive look at Android P before the public launch.

Google is putting the official title of “release candidate” on this build, which means it’s supposed to be stable and complete enough for regular use with “final system behaviors” and no major foreseen problems. Because of that designation, for those of us who aren’t developers Beta 4 is a great way to get an early look at Android P with the least amount of risk prior to the official release. There won’t be any big differences from Beta 3, but if you had previously only looked at the first beta or held off altogether, this will be a pretty big change for you.

If you have either generation of Google Pixel, it’s simple to enroll in the Beta Program and get an over-the-air update with the latest software. You can also manually update it with your computer if you’re really eager. In either case, if you need any help with the process we have a great guide to help you through it.

How to install Android P on your Pixel right now (and how to roll back to Oreo)

Android P

• Android P: Everything you need to know
• Android P Beta hands-on: The best and worst features
• All the big Android announcements from Google I/O 2018
• Will my phone get Android P?
• How to manually update your Pixel to Android P
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