Even though OnePlus had already confirmed that the OnePlus 5T and other OnePlus devices being updated to Android Oreo, more so the standard OnePlus 5, won’t be receiving Google’s Project Treble, curious users still wanted a better explanation as to why this is the case.
Through the OnePlus forums, one user asked whether the lack of Project Treble on OnePlus 5T and other OnePlus phones is strictly a OnePlus thing or an issue with all OEMs. A staff member gave out an explanation for this decision, saying that for Project Treble to be possible, it needs its own storage partition. However, Android N and older operating systems did not require a partition and as such, the likes of OnePlus 5 and 5T don’t have these needed partitions.
While it’s possible to partition the phones with an OTA update, OnePlus says it presents a bigger risk of damaging the device during the process. So, to avoid this loss, OnePlus 5T and co won’t receive Project Treble via the official Android Oreo update, much like the Google Pixel and Pixel XL.
The whole excitement about Project Treble has nothing to do with making the camera better or improving the battery life, but it has everything to do with speedy software updates. We all know how poor the Android world, except from Google, is when it comes to timely software updates. To make sure that companies are able to roll out updates faster than before, Google launched Project Treble, which comes as part of Android Oreo.
Project Treble drastically reduces the workload that vendors go through in order to make software updates ready for devices, something that only devices coming preinstalled with Android Oreo are guaranteed. While it would have been a great thing to see OnePlus 5T receive the support for Treble, the company’s recent efforts in software development and updates suggests that you might not even miss having Treble on the 5T.
OnePlus was actually the first non-Google OEM to start seeding Android Oreo to its devices. As at the time of this writing, OnePlus 3 and 3T are already installed with Android Oreo stable and the newer OnePlus 5 and 5T are expected to receive the stable version in the coming weeks, if not days. Other than OnePlus, only Huawei and HTC have devices running a stable version of Oreo OTA, which in itself, is an achievement.
The point is that if OnePlus is able to maintain this timely release of software updates, no OnePlus 5T user will remember missing out on Project Treble. If anything, Android P is likely to be the final major OS upgrade for this year’s OnePlus flagship killers.