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OnePlus 6T will ship with Android 9 Pie, but Pie for OnePlus 5/3 series delayed

OnePlus CEO Pete Lau answered some questions on Chinese social site Weibo, dishing some good news – and some bad.
By
October 16, 2018
OnePlus
TL;DR
  • OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed the OnePlus 6T will ship with Android 9 Pie.
  • However, he also said the Pie release for the OnePlus 3, 3T, 5, and 5T is delayed.
  • The OnePlus 6T will launch in China on November 5, six days after it launches on October 30.

Originally, we speculated the OnePlus 6T would launch on October 17, based on an official lock screen image provided by OnePlus. Although the launch is not happening tomorrow as we thought it might, it is still relatively close: October 30, two weeks from today.

Since the launch of the OnePlus 6T is so close, expect more and more information about the device to start trickling out to the media. For example, the CEO of OnePlus — Pete Lau — took to Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo (via GizmoChina) to dish some info on his company’s upcoming smartphone.

During the online chat, Lau confirmed something we’d already speculated: the OnePlus 6T will launch with Android 9 Pie out-of-the-box. While this isn’t earth-shattering news, it’s the first time the company directly confirmed that information.

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OnePlus 6

The OnePlus 6T version of Android 9 Pie — skinned over with OxygenOS — will be different from the current version of Pie on the OnePlus 6. It will have some new gestures as well as “a whole new UI,” according to the OxygenOS development team.

But what of Android 9 Pie for some of the older OnePlus devices? Although Lau did reaffirm that the OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T, OnePlus 5, and OnePlus 5T will still receive an Android 9 Pie update, that update is taking longer than expected.

The original timeline for a Pie update to those older devices was by the end of this year. Lau did not alter that timeline but didn’t clarify much else beyond that. As of now, you can go ahead and assume Pie will land on the older devices at some point in 2018, but be prepared for that to get pushed back to early 2019.

Finally, Lau confirmed the OnePlus 6T will go on sale in China on November 5 — six days after its global launch on October 30. Previously, we learned the OnePlus 6T would land in Europe on November 6, so it appears we can expect the device to launch in multiple countries about a week after the launch event.

NEXT: OnePlus 6T in-display fingerprint sensor to offer “unmatched speed and convenience”