OnePlus 5T receives Project Treble

OnePlus released a new firmware for its smartphones Android 5 and 5T. With OxygenOS OP5T_O2_Beta_11, the subsidiary Oppo introduces an important feature for Project Treble for future updates of these smartphones.

Technically, Project Treble is an interface for the manufacturer that lies between the framework of the Android operating system and the device-specific low-level software vendors chips. It is made possible by the new Vendor Test Suite (VST), which is conceptually similar to the Compatibility Test Suite (CTS). The latter allows developers to create applications running on different hardware from different device manufacturers.

Project Treble allows you to update the Android operating system without changing the implementation of the original provider. Thus, Google wants to speed up the process of updating (Image: Google)

Benefits of the Treble Project

Treble is to make sure that the Android updates provided by Google are working with all the chips of a smartphone. "Without an official manufacturer interface, a lot of Android code needs to be updated nowadays when a device is upgraded to a new version of Android," Google told the Android developers blog. "Through a robust vendor interface that allows access to specific Android components, device providers can bring a new Android version to consumers by simply upgrading the operating system." Android and no additional hassle for chip makers. "

By default, only smartphones support Project Treble, which will begin using Android 8.0 from launch. The fact that OnePlus now also provides the devices delivered with Android 7 Project Treble is far from obvious. Samsung made the extra effort to adapt the partition structure needed for Project Treble when upgrading to Android 8 for the Galaxy S7. Probably because no other update of the operating system is planned for the S7. In addition to OnePlus, Google (Pixel 1st Generation) and Huawei (Mate 9, Honor8 Pro) have allowed Project Treble to upgrade to Android 8 for some devices.

With "Seamless System Updates", Project Treble offers another feature that speeds up the upgrade process. A prerequisite for this, however, is a second system partition on which the update is performed in the background. When it is finished, it will restart with the updated system partition. However, the memory consumption of a second system partition is consistently large, so most manufacturers go through it. OnePlus also did not incorporate "flawless system updates".

In addition, the current beta version of OnePlus 5 and 5T offers further improvements. For example, the user interface has been completely updated and new accent colors have been added (Settings – Display – Customization). However, the upgrade will change the color to blue. In the overview view of the application (drawer), there is now a new significant search option with "new installations". Generally, OnePlus offers tags such as "Recently Searched", "Travel and Tourism" and "Social" in the application drawer. In addition, the contacts and the weather application have been revised. The latter also displays alerts from the German Meteorological Service.

Participating in the public beta of OnePlus is relatively easy. All you have to do is download the image to the phone you are using and have it flash through the built-in recovery. As a general rule, the parameters and the data must be kept. If it is necessary to reset the smartphone, which removes all data on the device, it will be notified.

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