Contrary to what most OnePlus users believe, the company hasn't forgotten about its older smartphones yet. The newly unveiled OxygenOS Open Beta update for the OnePlus 5 and 5T brings some significant changes, including support for Project Treble.
For the uninitiated, Project Treble is important to the future of Android updates. It significantly cuts down the amount of work manufacturers have to do to get Android upgrades ready for their own devices. This should, at least in theory, result in quicker rollouts for new software updates. Unfortunately, not all older devices support it.
Project Treble Arrives On OnePlus 5 And 5T
Thankfully, the OnePlus 5 and 5T now do, and that should make updates significantly easier for OnePlus users. The move comes as a surprise considering the company previously said it wasn't going to bring the feature to its older devices. In any case, nobody is complaining.
"After several months of evaluation and hard work, we finally found a solution to make this possible, and we are very excited to share this good news with you," OnePlus said in its release notes.
Android Police was the first to report about Project Treble support for OnePlus 5 and 5T. It can confirm that the feature is rolling out now. Make sure to check Oxygen Updater if the update doesn't trigger automatically.
OxygenOS Open Beta 11
Aside from Project Treble support, the beta update contains a number of improvements, including expanded accent color customizations, a "brand new" user interface, and optimizations for the launcher and certain OnePlus apps. The full changelog is available on the OnePlus community forums. The beta software is now also available via OnePlus's downloads page.
By contrast, Project Treble is already built into the company's latest flagship device, the OnePlus 6, which is probably why it has access to the latest Android P beta. But while the arrival of Project Treble on OnePlus 5 and 5T is certainly encouraging, it's not supposed to be taken an absolute indication that they'll get ultra-fast updates going forward. That'll still largely depend on OnePlus; Google is just making the process easier.
Do you have a OnePlus 5 or 5T? What do you think about Project Treble finally arriving on your device? Do you think this'll help OnePlus roll out software updates more quickly? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
