OnePlus One fans can now rejoice as the One Android devs have reportedly developed a new Android OS for their smartphones. Based on Android 5.0 Lollipop, the new OS would be free of CyanogenMod Android OS and will be featured in all OnePlus smartphones in course of time.
After the brawl with Micromax over the exclusive Indian copyright of CyanogenMod, OnePlus promised to release a new OS in their official blog. They explained the new OS will be free of Cyanogen and will retain the material design and every other important features of Android 5.0 Lollipop in their OS. But nobody thought they would release it so soon, while other smartphone biggies are still struggling to release the 5.0 Lollipop update Over-the-Air.
Meanwhile, all the OnePlus One smartphones released earlier, features CyanogenMod Android OS, but after the scuffle happened last month following Micromax's exclusive deal with Cyanogen.
According to the deal, Micromax is the sole copyright holder for selling CyanogenMod-based Android smartphones in India. Micromax has already released a new phone brand naming YU with the debut of Yureka budget Android smartphones in India.
When Yureka as released, OnePlus had just started to sell their phones via online retailer Amazon, but halted following a temporary ban by Delhi High Court on the basis of a petition lodged by Indian smartphone manufacturer Micromax.
Dubbed as Android Lollipop Alpha, the new ROM is the first official ROM by OnePlus. The Alpha is already available for download via the official OnePlus Site and for installing the OS, user needs to manually flash their devices and install it manually.
The new ROM is currently going through the early stage of development so it may take some time to remove all the bugs to launch the error free OTA version to their One smartphone users. Following are the list of the bugs:
- Data roaming is on by default. Make sure to turn if off to avoid potential charges.
- As always, flashing a custom ROM incurs the risk of bricking your phone. Make sure you know what you're doing and back-up everything.
- Camera and video may be unstable. This build supports 4k video, however quality may be low as we are still fine-tuning the camera.
- Capacitive keys do not turn off when you enable software keys.
- Clock crashes periodically.
- If using the new app pinning feature in L, make sure to turn on the software keys first. Otherwise, you will have to reboot your machine.
- On first boot, startup time will be a bit slow. Rest assured we will speed things up in the future.
- Wi-Fi may be unstable.
- This build is not eligible for OTA updates.
OnePlus has also posted a preview video of the new Android Lollipop Alpha OS on YouTube. Watch it, if you're really eager to know the key features of the new OS. To download the ROM and detail installation procedure, click here.
