OnePlus One Gets Android 5.0 Lollipop With First Public OxygenOS Build

OnePlus, after missing its deadlines at the end of March, on Saturday announced the release of the OxygenOS custom ROM based on Android 5.0 Lollipop for the OnePlus One smartphone. The ROM has been made available to download and flash.

In his announcement blog post, co-founder Carl Pei said that with the first public build of the Lollipop-based OxygenOS the firm was looking at standing out with simplicity, adding OnePlus placed "things like performance and battery life over gimmicks and bloated features."

The company has made a feedback app available as well, which apart from bug reporting is meant for suggestions on future feature implementations. "We want to emphasise that we built this initial version so that you guys could begin taking a direct role in the future of Oxygen. To make sure we're heading in the right direction, we need your input," Pei said.

Over and above vanilla Android 5.0 Lollipop, the initial build of OxygenOS offers three major differentiators - support for the OnePlus One's gestures controls including off screen gestures like double tap to wake and camera shortcut; customisation in terms of lock screen wallpapers, choice of hardware and software navigation keys, and a customisable quick settings screen; as well as a new file manager.

Users will need Fastboot and ADB installed, need to back up their data, and have a custom recovery tool installed before attempting to flash their handsets. Full instructions on how to download and correctly install the OxygenOS 1.0.0 ROM on the OnePlus One are provided on the company's forum.