New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Asian Android OEMs love to create brand identity by custom skins, and Realme is following the same track. Although their current lineup is powered by ColorOS (created by OPPO), the company hinted about ‘Realme OS’ back in May. Shortly after, they announced the mysterious ‘Project X’ for Realme 3 Pro.
TBH, the whole ‘Realme OS’ moniker has no official roots. We do know Realme is gradually adding bits and pieces of new enhancements aka making a Realme edition of ColorOS 6. Features like system-wide dark mode, gesture navigation and refreshed UI elements are in the pipeline as well.
Some screenshots surfaced during the mid of August, which were claimed to be originated from the NDA-protected Project X build for Realme 3 Pro. The credibility of the leak was very low, but it did show us the hyped Quick Settings panel changes (from square to unified rounded icons).
Well, someone just decided to share an alleged build of Project X for Realme 3 Pro. The full package weighs about 2.7 GB and the naming convention is indeed different from the regular stable build of ColorOS 6.
Leaked build: RMX1851EX_11_OTA_0760_all_Vm6EDTfY6vIy_2b2571a21.zip Stable build: RMX1851EX_11_OTA_0170_all_vdWIL8FbpHd3.ozip
Realme uses a proprietary ‘ozip’ format for packing their OTA updates. As you can see, the so-called leak comes as a typical zip archive. The software version identifier is quite different as well.
The package can be flashed using TWRP, and it comes with July security patch level. The internal version number contains the letter ‘W’, which is different from the stable channel firmware (they usually come with ‘A’ tag).
There is no reference of ‘Realme OS’ inside this build; the underlying Android version is Pie and it is not drastically different from regular ColorOS 6. The app drawer with somewhat broken adaptive icons is there, but the biggest surprise is the rounded, default-colored pull down Quick Settings panel.
If you are interested to play with this ‘leaked’ Project X build, head over to this thread or download it from this link. I like to narrate the LineageOS oath at this point, but you should get the vibe – always backup your data before playing with unstable/beta software!
Thanks @Xeno013 for the tip!
Update (September 13)
Realme has pushed an update over the previously leaked build of Project X for Realme 3 Pro. The OTA introduces system-wide dark mode & many new features. Details here.
PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.