Installing Android 15 Beta 1 on my Pixel 6 Pro brought it back to life
Last year I was forced to make a tough decision. Because of the poor battery life on the Pixel 6 Pro, I decided to retire it as my daily driver and brought back the older iPhone 11 Pro Max to replace it. The Pixel 6 Pro was lagging so badly that the iPhone 11 Pro Max, powered by the A13 Bionic application processor, outperformed the Pixel. And when Apple unveiled the iPhone 15 series, I bought the iPhone 15 Pro Max which became my new daily driver.
But the Pixel 6 Pro wasn't fully retired as I continued to install every update. Running the phone off of Wi-Fi, I used the Pixel 6 Pro in order to get images, and screenshots, and to test out system apps for Android and Pixel articles. But the lagging became worse and at times it was incredibly frustrating trying to swipe between homescreens. The phone was a mess.
Google releases the first beta update for Android 15
Because beta releases are not stable, especially the first few versions of a new operating system build, we suggest that you don't install them on your daily driver. That's because features that you rely on every day might not be working and typically the capabilities of the battery are reduced sharply during the beta testing process. But since my Pixel 6 Pro was no longer my daily driver, I went ahead and installed Android 15 beta 1. Google had just kicked off the new beta program and later in this article we will tell you how you can join it.
The Pixel 6 Pro
After installing Android 15 beta 1, I was in for a pretty big surprise. It was as though my Pixel 6 Pro had been drinking from the electronic version of the Fountain of Youth. Swiping between pages was no longer a laggy, frustrating experience and all of a sudden, I found myself just playing around with the phone again. But that is a character trait that I have and have experienced in the past. If an iPhone is my daily driver (as it is now) I get to a point where I find myself playing around with my last Android phone, and vice versa. I call this "The grass is always greener syndrome."
How to install Android 15 beta 1 on your Pixel
If you have a Pixel 6 series phone that you've given up for dead, install Android 15 beta 1 and see if you experience the changes that I have in the handset. To install the update, tap on this link or go to www.google.com/android/beta. Tap the box that says "View your eligible devices" and this will take you to an image of your Pixel phone. On the bottom of the box containing the image, opt in to receive the Android 15 beta. You might then want to back up your Pixel.
Updating to Android 15 added Circle to Search on my Pixel 6 Pro
Once that is completed, wait a few minutes and go to Settings > System > Software update > System update. Follow the directions to install the beta. Keep in mind that once you install Android 15 beta 1, you cannot roll back to Android 14 without wiping your phone. But since you are not using your daily driver, it shouldn't matter. Unfortunately, Android 15 is the last Android system update that my Pixel 6 Pro will receive (it will continue to receive security updates through 2026).
Will the unexpected and sudden performance boost that my Pixel 6 Pro obtained from installing Android 15 beta 1 lead me to switch from my iPhone back to a Pixel? You never know. If you do have "The grass is always greener syndrome," you know how this works. And this is why I scratch my head when readers suggest that I am pro-Apple or pro-Android. I'm just pro-smartphone.
If you do install Android 15 beta 1 on an older, compatible Pixel that you've "retired," let me know if the update improved the performance of your phone by dropping your comments in the box below.
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