The Chinese smartphone manufacturer OPPO is always praised for the unique designs, solid build quality and enhanced camera experience. However there is one thing that OPPO is never appreciated for: the software.
Even the latest smartphones and the flagships from OPPO are running the out-dated version of Android while the competitors (Samsung and Huawei) have made the shift towards Android Marshmallow and are now ready to receive Android Nougat in a month or two.
To shake things a little bit, OPPO announced Project Spectrum last year. Which aims to bring the near stock Android experience for OPPO smartphones, borrowing some features from ColorOS.
This includes Camera, MaxxAudio and screen gestures.
While the development is still slow, it’s good to see that people who don’t like ColorOS or want to have the latest version of Android running on their phones, now have a choice.
OPPO recently announced that the flagship F1 Selfie Expert and R7 Plus can now be upgraded to Project Spectrum based on Android Marshmallow.
You must take note that these are the early builds and might contain some bugs, but according to my own experience you can use them as your daily driver.
Make sure that you’re running the updated version of ColorOS and have not tempered with the default recovery.
Please note that you must use the stock recovery and make a backup of your all your data before upgrading. If you receive an error message while upgrading, reboot into recovery again and then upgrade.
Project spectrum is also available for discontinued models including R5 and Find 7/7a.