Thanks to their bi-monthly security update policy, OnePlus phones usually get security patches with a slight delay. For example, the Chinese OEM provided January 2019 security patch, then jumped directly to March by skipping February security bulletins altogether.

As the monthly security patches are cumulative, the practice is still viable. Although from a security standpoint, the devices are vulnerable to a strong 0-day exploit anyway.

onePlus_software_maintenance_schedule_bi_monthly

Around mid-March, OnePlus rolled out a new set of Open Beta builds for OnePlus 5/5T and OnePlus 6/6T. Besides March security patches, the updates brought mostly cosmetic changes like new animations and lock screen improvements.

oneplus_5_5t_march_open_beta_ota_changelog
Changelog for OnePlus 5/5T for the first Open Beta in March

However, the stable channel builds are still on January security patch. In yesterday’s daily dose of OnePlus news, we highlighted that the company may distribute the next wave of stable update in early April – at least for OnePlus 6/6T.

oneplus_6t_april_stable_update_funk_wizard

Turns out, OnePlus engineers were cooking something else as well. They just pushed another set of Open Beta builds for the OnePlus 5/5T and OnePlus 6/6T. As you may speculate now, they are based on the same March security update.

The changelog for the latest Open Beta 29 (OnePlus 5) and Open Beta 27 (OnePlus 5T) are as follows:

System

– Screenshot UI optimizations

Launcher

– Improved color adaptation for cards in the shelf

OnePlus Switch

– Supported permissions migration for applications

Weather

– More details added to weather warnings

– Weather timeline now follows system time format

– General bug fixes

Phone

– UI optimizations

oneplus_5t_open_beta_27_ota_changelog
OnePlus 5T Open Beta 27 changelog

On the other hand, OnePlus 6 (Open Beta 15) and 6T (Open Beta 7) have got an improved photo editor in Gallery, besides having the same fixes and improvements of OnePlus 5 and 5T.

oneplus_6_open_beta_15_ota_changelog
OnePlus 6 Open Beta 15 changelog

The official announcement threads for the updates are partially live – the OnePlus 6 and 6T thread is still not published. I’m sure Manu J. has made it already; he just need to unhide it.

On the other hand, the dedicated thread for OnePlus 5/5T was published yesterday at night.

oneplus_5_5t_open_beta_march_second_thread

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 29 for OnePlus 5: Download (MD5: c80fdd5bf4a08d0081b8dad87e37f551)
  • Open Beta 27 for OnePlus 5T: Download (MD5: 93b84ce30809c5b416b4a5e50be9fe4a)
  • Open Beta 15 for OnePlus 6: Download (MD5: 5df9b7e12fbb6d71ef524d83142ed5bc)
  • Open Beta 7 for OnePlus 6T: Download (MD5: ea78f7063faf7476ab9b39190e805335)

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.

The ‘Screenshot UI optimizations’ seems pretty interesting. Users have shared a few tricks exploiting the new UI feature in the forum.

oneplus_open_beta_march_second_screenshot_ui
Image source: OnePlus forum

The UI of the stock Phone app has got a new overhaul as well. Components like the accents or cards are updated with new designs.

oneplus_open_beta_march_second_phone_ui

Although the announcement thread for OnePlus 6 and 6T is not available yet, multiple users have already reported about the availability of the new build. Looks like OnePlus is trying to increase the wave size of their incremental OTA roll out process.

Do you prefer to use Open Beta builds for bleeding edge updates? Let us know by commenting below.

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Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

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