It has taken a long time but for those who have the OnePlus 2, your wait for Android Marshmallow is coming to an end. OnePlus today announced that a preview of OxygenOS 3.0, the Marshmallow based OS running on the 2, is now available for download for members of the community who want to try it. The preview means that it is still in beta and it is possible (likely) that you will run into issues if you decide to load it on your device. If you use your OnePlus 2 as your daily driver, it may be best to wait until the software is released to the general public.
In the post in the OnePlus forums, the company outlines the changes that are coming to the OnePlus 2 in OxygenOS 3.0 and the list is long.
OnePlus 2
Here’s what’s new in this build:
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Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow upgrade
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New OnePlus Camera UI
- UI has been cleaned up: swiping up/down now switches between photo/video, whereas HD/HDR and flash settings live in the top right corner
- You can now change the aspect ratio and toggle grid view without going all the way to the settings
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New wallpaper picker
- Easily preview and set both home screen and lock screen wallpaper in one place.
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Shelf UX has been improved
- No more edit mode, long press boards to rearrange or remove
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General system performance improvements
- Benchmarked 47% faster than OxygenOS 2.2.1 on key test scenarios
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Fingerprint performance improvement
- Tested 45% faster than OxygenOS 2.2.1 on average
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Settings changes
- Old app permissions are gone, say hi to new (native Android) app permissions.
- Alert Slider has its own entry point with more customization options
- Improved settings menu readability by changing the order a bit
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March security patches
As you can see, there is a fair mix of overall bug and performance improvements along with some UI changes and improvements. One important note is the late bullet point which is that the update will have the March security update included.
To back up my point about this being a beta build, the OnePlus team also included several warnings about some things that are less-than-optimal with the preview build.
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Your fingerprints will not be preserved after you flash the new build, so you will need to re-register your fingerprints if you have fingerprint authentication set up
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Maxxaudio tuner and presets will be removed
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Rolling back to previous OxygenOS versions will not work without wiping data
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Some soak testers have experienced wifi speed issues which we are investigating
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Some of your old apps won’t work without an upgrade to M compatible versions
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Shelf frequent apps board size might shrink if you are dirty flashing. Remove and re-add the board and it will fix itself
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Language localization is still being improved
Again folks, just like on the Android N Technical Preview, unless you really want to do some bug hunting, it may be best to wait until the GA (General Availability) of the release is made by OnePlus.
