Baby steps —

OnePlus takes just 45 days to bring Android 9 Pie to the OnePlus 6

The OnePlus 5T took five months, but now the company has cut down to 45 days.

Promotional image for Google Android iOS update.

OnePlus continues its trend of getting better and better at updates. Earlier this year, it finally released a formalized update plan for its devices, and now it's releasing one of its fastest device updates in recent memory. The OnePlus 6 is being updated to Android 9 Pie.

This release comes just 45 days after Google's release of Android 9 Pie. This might sound pretty slow compared to the millions of users that just got iOS 12 on launch day, but for Android, anything under three months is pretty good! OnePlus' old flagship, the OnePlus 5T, took a whopping five months to get updated from Android 7.1 Nougat to 8.0 Oreo, so this is a big improvement.

The update speed of Android devices is worth paying attention to this release cycle because things are actually different. Android 8.0 Oreo totally revamped the Android update process with Project Treble, a massive undertaking that modularized the OS away from the hardware. With Treble in place with Oreo, the update from Oreo to Pie should be faster and easier. So far we've seen a few signs that it might be working.

For the first time ever, there was a sizable beta program for Android Pie before the actual release. Besides the expected Google Phone release, Essential, Nokia, OnePlus, Oppo, Sony, Vivo, and Xiaomi all released Android P betas for certain models. No one should be surprised that the beta program participants are also the first to release final versions of Android Pie. So far, we've seen Essential release a shocking day-one update, and now OnePlus has managed to hit a personal best.

Channel Ars Technica