[Update: Jan 20] OnePlus releases HydrogenOS 11 (Android 11) Public

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on January 17, 2021) follows:

OnePlus was among the very first Android OEMs to hop onto the Android 11 train with the OnePlus 8 series of devices bagging stable Android 11-based OxygenOS 11 about a month after Google’s official unveiling of the new Android version.

Sadly though, the same pace wasn’t exactly translated to the other OnePlus devices. While earlier reports suggested that the OnePlus Nord and OnePlus 7 devices would get updated within 2020, that obviously didn’t materialize.

OnePlus 7

We came to know that part of the hold up for the development of Android 11-based HydrogenOS 11 for OnePlus 7 series of devices was a decryption issue. That has since been fixed in partnership with Qualcomm and development has been on course since.

Well today, the development and testing of this new skin is hitting a rather important milestone as according to OnePlus, the company is now pushing out Public Beta builds.

This is exciting news as this means that users of OnePlus 7 series of devices (OnePlus 7 Pro and OnePlus 7) running OxygenOS should also expect their respective test builds soon.

Source

Also, this test build is set to give users of these devices a glimpse of all the Android 11 goodness that OnePlus 8T and OnePlus 8 users have been enjoying for months. Some of these changes are outlined in the following changelog.

System

• Update to the deeply customized hydrogen OS 11 system based on Android 11
• Renew UI visual design, optimize many details, bring more comfortable visual perception
• Optimize the stability of some tripartite applications to improve user experience

camera
• The new version of the camera UI interface optimizes some functional paths and makes the operation more convenient
• Added HEVC high-efficiency video storage format, lossless image quality reduces video storage volume
• Added a preview of the shooting interface to support long-press one-click sharing, direct access to the application you need to share
• Newly added press the capture button to start fast recording, and support sliding this button to zoom and lock quickly during shooting, easy to record without restriction
• Added playback duration display for time-lapse shooting to intuitively grasp the actual content duration

Information screen display
• Added “Time” screen display customized style, which is jointly designed with students of Parsons School of Design, and changes constantly according to the data of mobile phone use time (Setting path: Settings-Personalization-Clock style)
• Newly added shadow painting function, which can automatically draw your lock screen photos into a dedicated wireframe (path: settings-personalization-wallpaper-shadow painting-select photo preview to quickly generate)

Dark mode
• Add shortcut switch to dark mode, pull down the shortcut setting to turn it on
• The dark mode supports the setting of automatic opening and time period (setting path: setting-display-dark mode-automatic opening-according to sunset and sunrise/custom time to open)

Negative one screen
• New negative one-screen interface design, the layout of the section is clear at a glance
• Added weather widget, animation effect is more smart

Gallery
• Intelligent one-week review function, which can intelligently generate videos according to the material situation to keep good memories
• Optimize the loading speed of the gallery, and the picture preview is faster
Source

Should you want to install these public beta builds on your OnePlus 7 or OnePlus 7T device, below are the download links.

Device: OnePlus 7
Channel: HydrogenOS 11 Public Beta
Android: 11
- Type: Recovery
  - Download OnePlus 7: Link
  - Download OnePlus 7 Pro: Link

Device: OnePlus 7T
Channel: HydrogenOS 11 Public Beta
Android: 11
- Type: Recovery
  - Download OnePlus 7T: Link
  - Download OnePlus 7T Pro: Link

We shall continue to keep an eye on this story and update as and when we get more info. Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this is that, the wheels are finally turning and development for Android 11 for the OnePlus 7 is picking up pace.

OnePlus 7 Pro

We have been following this development and the road to Android 11 for OnePlus 7 series of devices and you can check out our coverage of the same here.

With this, the OnePlus 7 series of devices join the OnePlus Nord whose Open Beta 1 is already out and is well on its way to a stable release. OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T owners, sit tight.

Update 1 (January 20)

IST 11:30am New reports from users running this public beta build now indicate that the build is missing Always-on-Display functionality. This is allegedly going to be added back in the stable build. More on that here.

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