Razer Phone gets Android 8.1 Oreo preview build

• Razer Phone owners are still on Nougat, but Razer just released a preview build based on Android 8.1 Oreo.
• Testing the preview build requires you to unlock your bootloader and wipe your data. It also breaks your warranty.
• The preview build is essentially for testing purposes only, but it does mean that a stable Oreo is coming soon to the device.

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The Razer Phone is a cool device, but it earned a lot of negative press when Razer revealed the phone would ship with Android 7.0 Nougat, even with Android 8.0 Oreo already available at the time. To make matters worse, the Razer Phone is still running Nougat even now.

However, Razer is catching up slowly but surely, as it just released a preview build for the Razer Phone, based on Android 8.1 Oreo.

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Being that this is a preview build, you shouldn't expect it to be a stable release. In fact, even to try out the build, you have to flash a system image over your current setup, which means wiping all of your data. Before that, you have to unlock the bootloader, which can't be done without wiping the data at the same time. So, needless to say, don't try out this new build without making a backup first.

Razer's warranty doesn't cover unlocked phones, so by the very act of testing out the company's own preview build, you are breaking your warranty.

Razer is also careful to explain that it will not issue OTA updates for this build. That means that even after you wipe your data and flash it, you will have to flash your device again to the stable build once it's released.

Finally, this preview build has no carrier-specific support for it, which means things like Wi-Fi calling, VoLTE support, or even basic data connections may or may not work.

So really, this update is for testing purposes only. Make no mistake.

If none of this has scared you away, you can go to the Razer developer page and download the 1.6GB file and have fun testing out Oreo on your Razer Phone.

NEXT: 10 best upcoming Android games

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