OnePlus Releases Alpha Build of Android 5.0 Lollipop Custom ROM for OnePlus One

By Hitesh Arora | Updated: 1 January 2015 15:47 IST

After the Cyanogen-OnePlus controversy in India, OnePlus had assured consumers that the company will push out an alternate ROM based on Android 5.0 Lollipop in December 2014, and a production-ready build by February 2015.

Following that, on Wednesday, the company released an alpha build of the ROM on its forums. The ROM contains no extras beyond the stock features of AOSP Lollipop, and OnePlus intends to build upon, improve, and customise it further with subsequent firmware updates. This ROM will not be available via OTA and can only be downloaded to flash on OnePlus One smartphones (Review | Pictures).

(Also see: Alleged OnePlus One Mini Variant Pictured Alongside Specifications)

On its forum, OnePlus has provided instructions on to install the custom ROM with the advisory to "proceed at your own risk."

Some of the known issues in the released custom ROM noted by the company include:

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.