The year 2015 has started from today, and OnePlus has started its year with a great surprise for its One smartphone owners. The Android Lollipop Alpha ROM version is now officially available for the OnePlus One users. This is the ROM developed by OnePlus itself, and is said to replace the CyanogenMod OS which was previously used in the OnePlus One devices.
Though the release of the ROM by OnePlus which is based on Android 5.0 Lollipop may not be much exciting news for much of the OnePlus One users, it is indeed a good news for the customers based in India, where the device was doomed to not get any updates and future support by Cyanogen, since the exclusive deal between Cyanogen Inc. and Micromax Ltd. prevented that.
The OnePlus employees have been working for quite a time now for the development of Android 5.0 Lollipop ROM, and the time favored them, to release the Alpha version just in the exact date of January 1st. The ROM is now available and ready to download and flash in the OnePlus One. The OnePlus ROM is pretty similar to the stock Android experience, but there are some minor changes such as the ability to have either onscreen or physical navigation buttons.
Here is a quick guide on how to install the Android Lollipop Alpha ROM in the OnePlus One:
- Download Oneplus_community.zip (you can find the link below) and copy the file to your phone. On a Mac, you can use Android File Transfer. If you have TWRP installed, you should see a TWRP folder, and that’s where you want to place the zip.
- Boot into TWRP recovery. You can do this on your OPO by holding both the volume down and power buttons.
- Once you are in the recovery interface, the first thing you want to do is go to Wipe and do a factory reset to clean your data, cache, and Dalvik. Note that you will lose all of your files so make sure everything is backed up before continuing.
- After the wipe, go to install and find the zip you copied to your device and confirm flash. This should flash the ROM to your device.
- After flash is complete. Clear your cache again. If you have GApps, install it now. Reboot your phone.
- You should now be booted into the new ROM. Enjoy.
Download:
https://s3-ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/oneplusroms/oneplus_community.zip
Since this is the Alpha version, there are definitely some bugs, some of which are already known and are listed as below:
- 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 backup 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 elegible for OTA updates.
Well, if you were worried about not getting any updates due to the ban in support from Cyanogen (if you are from India), your problem is officially solved now. You can download and flash the file, and get the experience of Android 5.0 Lollipop in your OnePlus One. For the users outside India, though you will be getting the frequent updates and support from Cyanogen, you can still install this Android Lollipop Alpha ROM in your device, if you want a little change! Enjoy! Leave your comments below, if you find more of bugs in the ROM, or are still not getting any clue on how to install it, or whatever your opinion is.
