Miracles Happen: Four 8-year-old Sony Xperia, 7-year-old Google Nexus and 6-year-old OnePlus get Android 11

In the Android world, it is not so common to find manufacturers who officially release major OS updates for smartphones 2-3 years after the start of their sales. However, enthusiasts continue to release alternative, unofficial, firmwares with new features and new versions of the OS.

This time, well-deserved veterans were able to join Android 11. The unofficial update from Android 11 can now be installed by users of OnePlus One (review), Google Nexus 5 (review), Sony Xperia SP (review), Xperia T, Xperia TX and Xperia V.

Sony smartphones debuted about eight years ago with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (Xperia SP) and Android 4.0 Ice Cream (Xperia T, TX and V) preinstalled, and the latest official update was Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.

OnePlus One launched in April 2014 with Android 4.4 KitKat on board, and the Google Nexus 5 launched in 2013 with Android 4.4 KitKat. Manufacturers continued to update the OS for both models up to Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

As reported in the community of mobile developers XDA Developers, for these models ported the unofficial shell LineageOS 18.1 based on the latest version of the operating system Android 11. It is noted that the firmware is not intended for the “faint of heart”, since it is still in beta testing. The build for OnePlus One, for example, comes with the problem of locking the screen with a PIN code, and for the rest, the SELinux mode (Security Enhanced Linux, a system of forced access control,) is set to Permissive, which reduces security to almost zero. However, in an environment where manufacturers stopped supporting devices years ago, some users may find such a solution worth the risk.