March security patch rolling out to OnePlus 5/5T & 6/6T via latest Open Beta update

At the end of February, OnePlus rolled out a bunch of Open Beta builds. As usual, both OnePlus 5/5T and OnePlus 6/6T were part of the roster of eligible phones. Meanwhile, OnePlus 3/3T users were counting days to get a proper official Android 9 Pie update.

As a rather interesting matter of fact, these beta builds came with January security patches. Not surprising though, as OnePlus follows a bi-monthly security patch distribution model.

We assumed that the upcoming beta (or stable) update would feature the March security bulletin. And here we go! OnePlus is currently rolling out another fresh set of Open Beta builds, featuring March security patch.

FYI, the March security patches fix various vulnerabilities – range from high to critical. Android media framework, kernel and Qualcomm low-level components are some of the domains which have been patched.

The infamous PNG vulnerability has also been fixed in these patches.

The changelog for the latest Open Beta 28 (OnePlus 5) and Open Beta 26 (OnePlus 5T) are as follows:

System

– Updated Android security patch to 2019.03

– New animation for flight mode

– Optimized notifications for quick settings

– Optimized battery consumption

Messages

– Now able to select contact groups for sending SMS

On the other hand, OnePlus 6 (Open Beta 14) and 6T (Open Beta 6) have got screen rotation improvements:

System

– Updated Android security patch to 2019.03

– Improved lock screen interface

– Improved sensitivity for screen rotation

Messages

– Now able to select contact groups for sending SMS

The official announcement threads for the updates are now partially live – the first one for OnePlus 5/5T could be reached hours ago, but looks like they decided to hide it for now.

On the other hand, the OnePlus 6 and 6T thread is live now.

Our collaboration with Oxygen Updater helps us to grab the download links of the full update zips as well. Without further ado, here are they:

• Open Beta 28 for OnePlus 5: Download (MD5: 63b14956d0ac85f2b2c4c35817c895c8)
• Open Beta 26 for OnePlus 5T: Download (MD5: 2ecb19af9337898a982fa5468e4814bb)
• Open Beta 14 for OnePlus 6: Download (MD5: 1b7bdbc3047422af32fc5e9422adc0ea)
• Open Beta 6 for OnePlus 6T: Download (MD5: 85db0db0c1eb7de32eb25b7d1de4ef31)

The full zips weight about ~1.6-1.8 GB, so you may prefer not to download them over mobile data. OnePlus also provides smaller incremental OTA zips, but we prefer not to share them for the sake of clarity.

As mentioned above, the announcement thread for OnePlus 5 and 5T is now hidden. Probably someone pushed the wrong red button earlier. The phones will eventually get the update, and this article will be updated accordingly.

Running OOS beta? Or prefer to stay on the stable channel? Let us know.

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