A couple of weeks ago, OnePlus rolled out the new OxygenOS Open Beta for its OnePlus 5/5T smartphones. Now, the company has again announced a newer Open Beta for the devices, which brings some camera improvements, reduces the “oil painting effect” in photos captured using the smartphones, and also brings support for using Google Lens from within the stock camera app on the smartphones. Some OnePlus users have previously complained that the device’s camera captured softer images which looked like oil paintings. While some may like the artistic images that are produced due to the issue, it is a hindrance for those who want to capture true-to-life images.
Information circulating on the internet suggests that there is no oil painting effect when images are captured using a third-party app. This suggests that there could be a problem with the image post-processing on the OnePlus 5/5T and not the camera itself. Whatever may be the case, the company is finally addressing the issue with the latest Open Beta 14 for the OnePlus 5 and Open Beta 12 for OnePlus 5T. As the fix is under open beta testing, we can expect it to be soon seeded to all via an OTA. Users who are already on a previous OxygenOS beta build will be receiving this update over-the-air. However, those who are on a stable version will need to flash the latest build using the instructions provided by OnePlus, which can be found here.
In the previous Open Beta builds, OnePlus brought Project Treble support for the OnePlus 5/5T phones, along with a revamped user interface and some other system level optimisations. OnePlus had previously said it can’t bring Project Treble to the OnePlus 5/5T and the OnePlus 3/3T as they were developed and launched with Android Nougat, which doesn’t require any system partitioning that Project Treble needs to work. Even though the partitioning could be done with an OTA update, OnePlus said that there is a risk that users might end up losing data in the process. However, it seems like the smartphone manufacturer has heard their users' petition, and is now working on pushing Project Treble to the OnePlus 5/5T.
The last OxygenOS Open Beta also updated the two devices with a new user interface and added accent colours. There is now a redesigned Weather app with a refreshed UI and the default launcher has been updated with improved search tags in the app drawer, along with improved app list for hidden space and toolbox. You can read more about the improvements and changes brought about in the last open beta update here.