OnePlus’ rollout of OxygenOS 11 with Android 11 hasn’t exactly been uneventful. OnePlus seven and 7Towners got hit hard, the toughest with numerous bugs and a promised feature that was inexplicably removed at the eleventh hour . the corporate also started the beta for the OnePlus 6 and 6T series just last month, suggesting it might be months before a stable release would be available. Beating those expectations, OnePlus surprisingly announced OxygenOS 11 for the two phones, hopefully during a very polished and bug-free state.
Android 11 is an unexpected gift from OnePlus. Both launched in 2018, the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T would have already reached their end of life last year, a minimum of as far as major Android upgrades are concerned. OnePlus started the beta testing period last month, before what it had first scheduled, and is now pushing the stable release far before anyone may need to be expected.
OxygenOS 11 brings big changes to the user experience and the already big changes that Android 11 makes under the hood. The styling and user interfaces are significantly altered to the purpose that some have derisively compared to Samsung’s One UI. There are also upgrades to all or any of OnePlus’ custom apps, of course, a new Camera UI and a toolbox for Game Space.
Noticeably missing is that the same Always-on Display feature yanked from the OnePlus 7 OxygenOS 11 release. This shouldn’t be an enormous surprise since the OnePlus 6 came with its own AOD implementation when it launched, and that, too, got removed thanks to battery concerns. However, OxygenOS does have an almost equivalent Ambient Display mode that creates up for its absence.
The OxygenOS 11 with Android 11 update should start rolling bent the OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T phones in waves. It’ll be an outsized update, of course. Therefore the usual precautions apply when upgrading. The considerably short beta testing period may be a bit concerning, but hopefully, OnePlus has already ironed out the kinks by now.
