OnePlus has announced that its custom Android build meant for
OnePlus One users in China,
HydrogenOS, will be released on May 28. Separately, the company has placated users troubled by a fresh round of touchscreen issues by saying it would release a firmware update to provide a fix.
The Chinese smartphone maker, following a high-profile tussle with
Cyanogen and
Micromax last year, had announced it would be building a new custom Android build developed in-house for the OnePlus One smartphone. This
arrived to the public in the form of the
OxygenOS in early April, while the China-specific version of the OS is yet to arrive.
Called HydrogenOS, the China-specific custom Android build for the OnePlus One is expected to be released as a flashable ROM that users will need to download and install. The company has sent out invites (
via GSMInsider) to the launch event for the custom Android build in Beijing on May 28.
Like OxygenOS, which shipped with only a few features above and beyond stock Android 5.0 Lollipop, HydrogenOS is expected to carry only a few tweaks focused on battery life and performance. It too will be based on Android 5.0 Lollipop, however, further region-specific differences
expected in the build have not yet been highlighted by the company.
In the meanwhile, users have started fresh threads of anguish on
OnePlus forums complaining of touchscreen issues. While these issues for most users were
resolved in the November update, they seem to have cropped up again, with theories stretching as far as the cause of the issue being the increasing temperature as we head towards the summer.
OnePlus for its part has promised a "final firmware fix" for the touchscreen issues, with co-founder Carl Pei in a forum
post on Friday saying the company is working with Synaptics, the supplier of the touchscreen software and hardware, to figure out the problem. The issue is reportedly affecting users both on Cyanogen OS and OxygenOS.
Pei in the forum post said, "Over the past few weeks, we've seen a substantial amount of feedback regarding touchscreen issues. Before an informed response could be given, first we investigated the case thoroughly. We wanted to get the full picture of what could be causing this issue, as well as prepare a number of solutions... Although percentage-wise the number of touchscreen cases is very small, we understand that our user base is very vocal. We take your feedback seriously and have been putting the One through a battery of tests and determined that there are different issues at play, some software and some hardware."